[ietf-dkim] Using mailing list to work through open issues

[Douglas Otis]

On Oct 5, 2006, at 10:14 AM, Dave Crocker wrote:

> Folks,
>
> Although it's great fun to schedule a time for everyone to use  
> jabber together, there is nothing preventing our conducting exactly  
> the same style of process over email.
>
> I know that might sound revolutionary, but it used to work pretty  
> well, before IM became popular.
>
> This merely requires that we have a discussion 'chair' who  
> introduces the next topic, provides a bit of on-going oversight,  
> and declares a topic closed when it is.

Agreed.

Email supports this effort in a manner that Jabber does not.  Email  
offers a means to split conversations into threads, and redirect  
message sources.  Jabber topics are announced opened/closed, where  
responses are limited to short blurbs.  This is done while  
participants track conversations offering a maze of abbreviated,  
numerated, and hyphenated references from a variety of sources.  The  
number of displays available becomes a limiting factor in being able  
to participate effectively, as time is extremely limited.

This effort is made even more complex with various server related  
failures, where responses must be real-time before a topic is changed  
and further discussion is thwarted.  The half dozen jabber  
participants is a sizable reduction from the mailing-list, and should  
not be considered representative.

Jabber limits both the time and response any participant is  
permitted.  An inability to offer comprehensive responses should not  
be considered improved behavior.  The last two points brought to the  
list slammed in the jabber session were revived only after  
comprehensive responses were permitted within the larger community.

The reduced activity on this list at times seems to demonstrate these  
are conversations.  An exchange of concepts, where indeed not  
everyone has the same perspective, should not be seen as a problem,  
but rather as offering better review.


-Doug