Re: tone policing

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

On 9/9/19 1:03 PM, Ted Lemon wrote:

> The problem right now is that because there is no feedback loop, and 
> because so much of what is said is useless, even if there are ten 
> thousand subscribers to the IETF, I seriously doubt that even 0.01% of 
> those people are actually following the discussions here carefully 
> enough to get value out of them.  It’s just too much work.

Different people will have different opinions about whether a message 
was useful or useless.  Who is right?   It's not as if everyone has the 
same concerns.   There are a very many discussions that appear on this 
list that I don't care about, but that doesn't make them unimportant.

Perhaps there are large numbers of readers who do not care whether IETF 
management silences or discourages posters whom they do not like.   That 
doesn't make the debate less important.

Perhaps there are large numbers of readers who trust IETF management to 
do the right thing.   That does not make the debate less important.

Perhaps there are large numbers of readers who have already made up 
their minds (either about the topic or about certain individuals who are 
posting) and just delete or skip over any message that pertains to this 
topic.  That does not make the debate less important.

Perhaps there are large numbers of readers who do care about this topic 
but who have given up hope of IETF adequately addressing it.   That's 
not a reason for those who do care to also give up.

Even though I've disagreed with a great many messages on this thread, I 
haven't seen a single useless message posted to it.

Keith