Re: [Tools-discuss] Targeted email/chat group for reaching WG chairs.

[Robert Sparks <[e-mail]>]

Some inline notes, then discussion at the end.

On 4/14/22 8:52 AM, Rob Wilton (rwilton) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I had an action, I think from a previous IEG retreat, about seeing if we could set up a targeted email alias to reach WG chairs with important information that all WGs chairs would be expected to see/read.
>
> The aim: Have a way of getting limited important information to the WG chairs in a way that is likely to reach them (e.g., in-person meeting announcements, or nomcom requests).  There was some brief discussion as to whether an alias similar the <area>-chairs would be more effective than a standard mailing list, but the conclusion was to seek your expert opinions on this.
>
> Of course, we already have wgchairs@, but some chairs miss some of the announcements sent to the list, or read the information too late.
>   This may be because they filter it, or there is too much other discussion on the alias which drowns the important news from general discussion.  So, the goal is a very cutdown lists with much more limited emails.  E.g., probably in the order of approx. 1 or 2 per week between meetings, and a bit more in the run up to IETF.
>
> In addition, there was also some discussion about having something similar setup for Slack/Zulip.  I.e., a place to send announcements for WG chairs to read.
Creating a zulip channel would be relatively easy, but wouldn't meet the 
claimed needs unless we had a critical mass of chairs using zulip in a 
way that they would see the messages or get alerts that they didn't 
filter away.
>
> A final consideration is that we would probably want to direct follow ups to a more general discussion list, i.e., aiming to keep the volume of the email on the announce email lists (and chat channel) to be very low, perhaps with a restricted sender's group.
>
> Do you have any suggestions as to what is feasible here and what the recommended approach might be?  Could DMARC be an issue with an <area-chairs> type of approach?

Right now _aliases_ are failing badly because of dmarc. The 
acronym-chairs@ or draftname@ addresses are aliases, with the values 
they expand to visible on the email address tab of groups and documents.

wgchairs@ is a mailman list. We are doing several custom things in order 
for the lists to play more nicely with dmarc that we are not yet doing 
for aliases. Extending the notion to the aliases is a future work item.

I am skeptical that yet another email channel will make a difference. 
You should be looking for a mechanism that is not going to end up 
filtered (or just ignored) the same way the current mechanisms are.

One possibility I've been considering for audiences like the set of 
chairs is using the messaging framework in the datatracker. As chairs or 
ADs, you've seen popups at the top of pages that show you've done 
something that sends email. That same mechanic could be used to say 
"Headline: <foo>. Go read <important list>" or something along those 
lines. Chairs are likely to be logged in and frequently using the 
datatracker during the periods before meetings. But not all chairs will 
actively do so in the periods between, but the chairs of sleepy groups 
may not be who you are trying to reach.

In the end, this is mostly a management problem - a social issue, not a 
technology issue. If you haven't already discussed potential changes 
from that perspective within the IESG, please do so.




>
> Thanks in advance,
> Rob
>
>
>
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