Re: Fundamental changes in IETF discussions? (was: Re: Messages from the ietf list for the week ending Sun Dec 27 06:00:02 2020)

[Eliot Lear <[e-mail]>]

Hi,

> On 27 Dec 2020, at 18:42, John C Klensin <[e-mail]> wrote:

> However, I wonder if we are not losing something by what appears
> to me to be a growing trend to separate discussion topics off
> into topic-specific lists and to do so fairly early in the life
> cycle of topics and clusters of discussions.

+1.

Either we are a community or we are not.  IMHO we have reason to act as a community, because one result of not being one is a lack of situational awareness on the part of participants with regard to relevant work that takes place in areas they may not normally follow.  This in turn leads to disparate incompatible approaches, rather than architectural building blocks that the IESG alone cannot possibly scale to address.  IoT has been particularly harmed by this fragmentation, but it is surely not alone.

Of course, being part of a community entails responsibilities as well as privileges.  Part of that responsibility is a code of conduct to which members agree and adhere.  Rapid fire responses, and ad hominem attacks have played a role in diminishing the plenary function of this list, as some lamented earlier this year.

My view: some new thinking is needed about this.

Eliot