Re: New Version of the Tao of the IETF

["Bron Gondwana" <[e-mail]>]

On Tue, Sep 24, 2019, at 02:35, Corinne Cath wrote:
> 2. related, the current text says that "the ietf discussion list is unmoderated" is that correct? it seems like there is some moderation going on, with interventions from the SAA's (leaving aside the debate about how much moderation is good moderation) which you mention later on in that paragraph.

My understanding of "moderated" in the context of mailing lists is "pre-filtered" - aka, a moderator choses which messages are sent out to the membership of the list, and if they disagree then the message is never delivered.

This is different from a list where digressions from the norms are called out, which is not quite a "free for all". There are rules for posting on this list and you'll be removed if you repeatedly violate them, but that's not the same as a small group of people who decide what even gets delivered.

So I'd say that the IETF list is policed, but it's not moderated. In the interests of a citation I'll use the first search hit in my particular echo chamber for the search "moderated mailing list definition":

https://www.netlingo.com/word/moderated-mailing-list.php

(though I admit that some people use the a moderated subscriber list instead of moderated posting as their definition. By that standard, the IETF list is likewise unmoderated)

Cheers,

Bron.

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 Bron Gondwana, CEO, Fastmail Pty Ltd
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