[Mod-discuss] Re: Moderator Team Procedures - For Community Input

[Ted Lemon <[e-mail]>]

On 23 Oct 2026, at 19:32, Bron Gondwana <brong=[e-mail]> wrote:
> I think so.  I don't believe that softening language and calling people "naughty little scamp" rather than "selfish disruptive jerk" improves the setting of clear expectations.  We can bikeshed/wordsmith the word, but this is the IETF's policy enforcement mechanism.  Force.  We are using a power not granted to everybody, to stop somebody doing something, because the IETF has determined that such behaviour is detrimental to the purposes and mission of the organisation.

Bron, that wasn't my point at all. My point is that the framing you've presented here here is incorrect and harmful. It is _not_ the case that everybody who behaves badly on IETF mailing lists has bad intentions. Some do, sure, but mostly we are just badly socialized. Maybe they can get better, maybe they can't, but the point is that that's the primary problem the mod team is supposed to be addressing. That's why we don't want BCP 83.

Furthermore, you _know_ that lots of people who behave badly on IETF mailing lists don't have bad intentions, and that's going to mean that you won't take action to "punish" them, because you rightly believe they don't deserve to be punished.

This is exactly the opposite of what the working group intended (based of course on my internal non-binding consensus call). We wanted quick, lightweight, non-judgmental action. This will also of course work for determined repeat offenders, but if we only apply the available remedies to actually ill-intentioned people, we'll fail.