Re: [Last-Call] Last Call: <draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformational-02.txt> (IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus) to Best Current Practice

Hi,

Thanks for this document. I think it is a fine idea to make this small
change official even if (or perhaps particularly because) it describes what
the IESG has been doing for some time.

However, I think the document needs some work before it can be published.

1. The document is framed as a proposal. That was great for opening the
discussion, but when published as an RFC it needs to be phrased as a clear
statement of practice. Thus, you need to reword it accordingly. That's a
fairly easy change, but hits several places in the document.

2. The Introduction usefully sets out what 2026 requires. However, you also
need to say what this document does. I think it is conventional to make the
"updates" statement in the Introduction and to state what the update is:
such as, "This document updates [RCF2026] by stating rules for establishing
IETF consensus before the publication of any RFC on the IETF Stream."
There are also a couple of nits in the text you have:
a. "it should be remembered that this RFC predates" Since the draft will
(hopefully) be published as an RFC, the term "this RFC" will be
misinterpreted as meaning "this document". I think you can fix that as
"...remembered that that RFC..."
b. "As a consequence, it is currently permitted for the IETF to approve".
Once this document is published as an RFC your statement will be wrong and
confusing. Furthermore, I think you mean IESG not IETF. Maybe you fix this
as "As a consequence, RFC 2026 permitted the IESG to approve"

3. Section 4 is a bit of discussion that no-doubt helped form this document.
But I wonder whether you want this discussion to remain. You have already
decided that the final paragraph should be removed. Could you actually
remove the whole section without loss to the document?
If you decide to keep Section 4, it will need some work.
The first sentence of the first paragraph will not age well with the
publication of this document as an RFC. Maybe it could be rewritten as:
   The procedures defined in [RFC2026] permit the publication of
   some RFCs in the IETF stream without first establishing IETF
   consensus.
Additionally, while you are correct as to the letter of the 2007 IESG
statement, I hope you'll agree that the intent of that statement in having
IETF-wide review was that consensus would be reached. Finally, the
referenced IESG statement does not say that "no document will be issued
without first conducting an IETF Last Call", it talks only about "Individual
Submissions". The fact that the IESG now issues last calls on all IETF
Stream documents is an established behaviour, but is not (I think)
documented - IIRC, an IESG just decided to do it. That could all mean some
substantial clean-up and leads me to think that it is easier to drop the
rest of the text in the paragraph. 

4. You should decide whether to use "stream" or "Stream" and be consistent.

Thanks for the work,
Adrian

-----Original Message-----
From: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce-bounces@ietf.org> On Behalf Of The IESG
Sent: 24 January 2020 18:09
To: IETF-Announce <ietf-announce@ietf.org>
Cc: draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformational@ietf.org
Subject: Last Call:
<draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformational-02.txt> (IETF Stream
Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus) to Best Current Practice

The IESG has received a request from an individual submitter to consider the
following document: - 'IETF Stream Documents Require IETF Rough Consensus'
  <draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformational-02.txt> as Best Current
  Practice

The IESG plans to make a decision in the next few weeks, and solicits final
comments on this action. Please send substantive comments to the
last-call@ietf.org mailing lists by 2020-02-21. Exceptionally, comments may
be sent to iesg@ietf.org instead. In either case, please retain the
beginning
of the Subject line to allow automated sorting.

Abstract

   This document proposes that the IETF never publish any IETF stream
   RFCs without IETF rough consensus.  This updates RFC 2026.

The file can be obtained via
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformat
ional/

IESG discussion can be tracked via
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-halpern-gendispatch-consensusinformat
ional/ballot/

No IPR declarations have been submitted directly on this I-D.

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