Experiment in Long-Term Suspensions From Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Mailing Lists
RFC 4633
Document | Type |
RFC - Experimental
(August 2006; No errata)
Updated by RFC 8717
Was draft-hartman-mailinglist-experiment (individual in gen area)
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Author | Sam Hartman | ||
Last updated | 2015-10-14 | ||
Stream | Internent Engineering Task Force (IETF) | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized (tools) htmlized bibtex | ||
Reviews | |||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 4633 (Experimental) | |
Action Holders |
(None)
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Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | Brian Carpenter | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group S. Hartman Request for Comments: 4633 MIT Category: Experimental August 2006 Experiment in Long-Term Suspensions From Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Mailing Lists Status of This Memo This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006). Abstract Discussion in the community has begun to question whether RFC 3683 and RFC 3934 provide the appropriate flexibility for managing Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) mailing lists. This document is an RFC 3933 experiment designed to allow the community to experiment with a broader set of tools for mailing list management while trying to determine what the long-term guidelines should be. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ....................................................1 2. Requirements notation ...........................................3 3. Definition of IETF Mailing List .................................3 4. The Experiment ..................................................4 5. How the Experiment May Be Used (Informative) ....................4 6. Security Considerations .........................................5 7. Acknowledgements ................................................5 8. References ......................................................5 8.1. Normative References .......................................5 8.2. Informative References .....................................5 1. Introduction As discussed in RFC 3683, the IETF needs to have rules of conduct to limit disruptive or abusive behavior while permitting a fair and open forum for the discussion of Internet standardization. The IETF has a long and complicated history of rules for managing conduct on its mailing lists. Hartman Experimental [Page 1] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006 RFC 2418 [RFC2418] permitted individuals to be blocked from posting to a mailing list: "As a last resort and after explicit warnings, the Area Director, with the approval of the IESG, may request that the mailing list maintainer block the ability of the offending individual to post to the mailing list." RFC 2418 also allowed other forms of mailing list control to be applied with the approval of the area director and Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). However, RFC 2418 applied only to working group mailing lists. The IETF discussion list charter [RFC3005] provides guidelines for ietf@ietf.org. These guidelines provide more flexibility than RFC 2418. "The IETF Chair, the IETF Executive Director, or a sergeant- at-arms appointed by the Chair is empowered to restrict posting by a person, or of a thread, when the content is inappropriate and represents a pattern of abuse. They are encouraged to take into account the overall nature of the postings by an individual and whether particular postings are an aberration or typical. Complaints regarding their decisions should be referred to the IAB." In particular it appears that these decisions do not follow the normal appeals path outlined in RFC 2026 [RFC2026]. RFC 3683 [RFC3683] provides a procedure for banning named individuals from posting to an IETF mailing list for at least one year. However once such a ban is put in place for one mailing list, the individuals responsible for other IETF mailing lists can unilaterally remove the posting rights of that individual. RFC 3934 [RFC3934] amends RFC 2418 and grants the working group chair the ability to suspend a member's posting rights for 30 days. However, it appears to remove the ability of the AD and IESG to approve longer suspensions or alternative procedures: "Other methods of mailing list control, including longer suspensions, must be carried out in accordance with other IETF-approved procedures." An argument could be made that the amendment was not intended to remove the already-approved procedures in RFC 2418, although a perhaps stronger argument can be made that the actual textual changes have the effect of removing these procedures. The IESG has issued a statement on mailing list management [IESGLIST] that allows working group mailing lists to be moderated. Under this procedure, specific off-topic postings could be discarded. However, this procedure does not allow the posting rights of an individual to be suspended; it simply allows the list as a whole to be moderated. The IESG issued a statement on disruptive postings [IESGDISRUPT] .Show full document text