Re: registries and designated experts

[Bjoern Hoehrmann <[e-mail]>]

* Dave Crocker wrote:
>It's almost inevitable that many designated experts will, in fact, act 
>as gatekeepers.  For example the distinction between "won't do damage" 
>vs. "looks like excellent engineering" is more subtle in practice than 
>one might think.  Especially absent very precise specification of review 
>criteria and absent actual training of the reviewers.

It seems to me that if an expert reviewer thinks that something will do
notable harm, they should decline to make a decision and defer it to the
IETF at large; and any registration procedure that does not allow that
is broken. (Similarily, let's assume that something will do harm, but an
expert reviewer fails to see it, but others do: they should have the a-
bility to appeal expert reviewer decisions, so the matter can be brought
to the attention of more and possibly better qualified people; if that
is not an option, the process is broken; if, on the other hand, nobody
cares to use available procedures, including making a big fuss over it
in the regular press, or whatever, then it probably was not important e-
nough.)
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