Re: Describing which behavior is appropriate or not (was: Last Call: <draft-eggert-bcp45bis-06.txt> (IETF Discussion List Charter) to Best Current Practice)

[S Moonesamy <[e-mail]>]

Hi Bron,
At 05:05 PM 04-11-2021, Bron Gondwana wrote:
>There is another issue with asking for discussions to slow down, 
>which is that mailing lists have people from many different 
>timezones and with other things going on in their lives.  It's quite 
>unfair for those who aren't awake at the time for the conversation 
>to move on so fast that they don't get a chance to have any input.

Yes.

>So it's quite reasonable to say "you're allowed to send up to three 
>messages per day and then back off and let somebody else 
>speak".  This is more obvious in an in-person meeting, where it's 
>pretty clear if a couple of people are monopolising the room and not 
>giving anybody else a chance to speak.

It would be difficult to enforce a message limit rule on a working 
group mailing list.

>Likewise, if a couple of people are yelling at each other in an 
>in-person meeting, the body language of everybody else makes it 
>quite clear that they are getting out of line - but a similar 
>escalation of emotionality on a mailing list doesn't have that 
>real-time dampener effect of the audience feedback you get in a real 
>room - so a more explicit "let's take a pause, go away and think 
>about what's important here" does need to happen.

The yelling is risky (please see RFC 7776).

>The problem, and I think you identify it well here, is when that 
>"let's take a pause" is used with an underlying "and hopefully 
>you'll just go away because I don't like the point you're trying to make".
>
>Using a pause as a way to make people go away is not cool - but 
>using it to stop somebody saying the same thing over and over, 
>forcefully, and not waiting for others (who might not be awake or 
>paying attention right now) to have a chance to contribute to the 
>conversation first - that's reasonable.  Conversations shouldn't be 
>dominated by those who have the time to write a lot of email at all 
>hours of the day.

The purpose of the pause is to give everyone enough time to read the 
"Note Well".  I would  not use it to prevent someone from repeating 
his/her arguments or to make people go away.

The last sentence (quoted above) is related to the breath of 
consensus.  A process dominated by a few persons or companies is not 
a consensus-based process.

Regards,
S. Moonesamy