[Mod-discuss] Re: handling held messages we don't want to send to the list

[Jay Daley <[e-mail]>]

> On 20 Aug 2026, at 08:10, Stephen Farrell <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hiya,
> 
> On 19/08/2026 20:49, Jay Daley wrote:
>> Apologies if this comes across as rude, but I don’t think this is for
>> you to decide. A list owner's responsibility stops at that list and I
>> don’t see any BCP that allows them to decide that emails they
>> moderate on that list should be publicly available elsewhere.
> 
> I'm unaware of any BCP that describes this though. Is there one?
> (Entirely possible.)

It’s the other way around - we have a set of policies (BCPs) where the community delegates authority to people and when it comes to managing other people’s mail, those rules are clear.  There’s no BCP that gives anyone the authority to decide that an email sent to list X should instead be posted on list Y or anywhere other than list X (except those processes where that is the intent, such as sending an appeal to the IESG).

> 
> In such cases, when there's no BCP or similar, ISTM we chat about
> stuff, hence my mail. (I'd also argue when something's not clearly
> covered by a policy, we default to allowing flexibility, not to a
> default "can't do it":-)

I agree, but in this case I think it would be a big policy change, hence the need for a community decision.  If what you’re initiating is a discussion around that then I apologise, it read to me as if you were planning individual action here.

> 
>> That’s
>> a decision only the community can make, and as the practice so far
>> has been overwhelmingly to discard them,
> 
> Is that the case? I wasn't aware. (Not disagreeing, I'm just not
> aware that's been the common case.)

Have you seen moderated messages being shared elsewhere by the owners of lists that moderated those messages or through some automated process?  I haven’t.  Sometimes the OP chooses to post them elsewhere but that’s their choice.

> 
> > I understand that it seems odd to discard messages from someone
> > who has attacked you directly,
> 
> Just to be clear: that doesn't bother me at all, nor was I at all
> concerned or uncertain about imposing moderation.

Understood and sorry for jumping to conclusions.

Jay

-- 
Jay Daley
[e-mail]
www.ietf.org