Re: A contribution to ongoing terminology work

[Carsten Bormann <[e-mail]>]

Keith,

while I think that the ability to express differing opinions is an important part of the openness that creates the IETF, we need to remember that this is not by itself an absolute value, but serves a purpose: enable productive discourse.

The two “Les White” drafts weren’t humor, they were intended to incite discord, not foster discourse.  (The draft about pronouns in TLS actually *was* somewhat funny, but Table 1 unexplicably fell back to the unacceptable approach of the other draft.)
There is nothing in the IETF that this “humor” tries to react to; it is just pulling in external strife that we don’t need.

Unfortunately, much of the discussion about the deletion is really a proxy about some other grievances that people might hold.  I’d prefer if we could handle these as such and let the two still-born attempts at humor rest in peace.

(Then there is the discussion about the other two drafts that this thread actually is about, which may have been preposterous, but not unacceptable to a level that would have justified their removal.  Again, please let’s discuss them, if that is necessary, separately.)

As a side comment, we also do value a certain level of transparency about authorship, which was not honored by the two deleted drafts either.  I hope that the rumors I’m hearing about the author of the other two drafts (who did honor the principle) now being harassed don’t substantiate; we might lose that principle altogether otherwise.

Grüße, Carsten