Re: Question about pre-meeting document posting deadlines for the IESG and the community

[Benoit Claise <[e-mail]>]

On 3/16/2024 6:49 AM, Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> On 16-Mar-24 10:17, Pete Resnick wrote:
>> Agreed. We really need to have a bit of a general re-think on what we
>> really want out of these rules instead of (IMO) silly point-fixes that
>> don't really address the issue. Re-opening the queue on Sunday is
>> completely counter-productive if the point was not to have new versions
>> just before the f2f. (Similarly, the current proposal to remove the I-D
>> expiry date, which I agree is anachronistic and not serving its original
>> purpose, is another attempt at a simple point fix that does not address
>> the original reason those dates existed.)
>>
>> Can we have a go at why we want these mechanisms in the first place
>> instead of making arbitrary changes?
>
> As far as I recall, it was originally intended to ensure that in the
> face-to-face meeting of each WG, people had all read the same version
> of each I-D. As hacks to bypass the posting deadline have emerged
> (with github PRs only being the latest hack), this has become less and
> less effective. Maybe that battle has now been lost.
>
> However, we should consider two other effects of the deadline:
>
> 1. Negative: A ridiculously large number of drafts are posted within
> ~72 hours, as Carsten pointed out recently**. So anybody who tries to
> track the IETF very broadly is swamped three times a year.
>
> 2. Positive: People are deadline-driven. If we didn't have the deadline
> two weeks before the meeting, the ridiculous number of drafts would
> be posted... today!

Let's add a third effect.
3. The IETF hackathon positive effect. People start meeting on Sat/Sun 
before the IETF week, discussing the different open issues, ideally 
around code development. Some issues are potentially solved during the 
week-end, leading to new draft revisions being posted, as prerequisite 
for the WG discussion. If not posted as a new draft revision, the WG 
slide deck will anyway contain the hackathon findings (which has the 
same positive effect)

Regards, Benoit