Re: tone policing

[Keith Moore <[e-mail]>]

On 9/2/19 7:41 PM, Mark Nottingham wrote:

> I'm extremely reluctant to wade in here, but nevertheless here I am.
>
>> On 3 Sep 2019, at 7:57 am, Keith Moore <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>> It's wrong to dismiss someone's input because of their "tone". It doesn't matter why they have that "tone".   It could have been because of current or past abuse, or simply because they're frustrated.    Or both.   Sometimes the stakes of IETF discussions are high, and sometimes that leads to frustration.
> Absolutely agreed.
>
>> Ignore the tone as much as possible, concentrate on the substance.
> Absolutely not agreed, for reasons that have been discussed at length. Ignoring bad behaviour is permission to continue it, and changes the culture of the IETF to exclude valuable contributors. It also makes this a toxic environment.

"tone" that someone doesn't like is nowhere nearly the same as "bad 
behavior".   To call something bad behavior, you need a better reason 
than "tone".

And legitimizing sanctions based on "tone" is permission for 
manipulative and abusive people to continue to use that argument to shut 
down arguments of substance.

>> To insist on doing otherwise is an insult to the speaker.
> That's such an interesting assertion. Why is challenging people to behave better an insult?
>
Because in many if not most cases it has nothing to do with behaving 
better.   It's just a way for someone to justify using their own 
prejudice to attack a speaker and distract from the speaker's message.

Keith