| Internet-Draft | Be Excellent To Each Other | November 2024 |
| Sayre | Expires 10 May 2025 | [Page] |
The greatest and least heinous of all golden rules.¶
This note is to be removed before publishing as an RFC.¶
The latest revision of this draft can be found at https://sayrer.github.io/be_excellent/draft-sayre-modpod-excellent.html. Status information for this document may be found at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-sayre-modpod-excellent/.¶
Discussion of this document takes place on the MODeration PrOceDures Working Group mailing list (mailto:mod-discuss@ietf.org), which is archived at https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/mod-discuss/. Subscribe at https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/mod-discuss/.¶
Source for this draft and an issue tracker can be found at https://github.com/sayrer/be_excellent.¶
This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.¶
Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.¶
Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."¶
This Internet-Draft will expire on 10 May 2025.¶
Copyright (c) 2024 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.¶
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Revised BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Revised BSD License.¶
There is some informal text in this document, but the topic is serious. If you find yourself about to send a message you might regret, consult this text first.¶
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.¶
All day counts below are cumulative, and any of these actions may be appealed.¶
Anyone appointed to moderate an IETF mailing list (such as a WG chair, or an IETF list moderator) can prevent posting from anyone for twelve days, either through outright blocking or screening, with no transparency aside from informing the person being moderated. The person appointed to moderate the list can send a message along the lines of "we've asked some people to take a break". Everyone following closely will know anyway.¶
Hopefully, this action will be used only for a day or two. This capability is good, because there's no shame. It is not to be used in "Last Call" situations, as those have a time limit as well. Twelve days might seem like a long time, but the policy is intended to cover all times of year.¶
Anyone can start a blog, or CC an email to a non-IETF list. There are many venues not subject to IETF moderation.¶
It may be that the IETF audience's attention is being abused through IETF infrastructure, so that's why this action exists.¶
The moderator or WG chair must inform an Area Director or the IETF Chair, as appropriate, and again inform the participant.¶
If the problem persists this long, it is in BCP 83 or IETF Ombudsman territory (ED: the WG will have newer refs here), which quite likely might have started in the previous steps. At this point, it must be publicly pointed out.¶
The hazard in writing any document of this sort is that it seems to presume the authors and supporters are perfect. They are not.¶
Everyone makes mistakes. The IETF will treat people with kindness and grace, but not endless patience.¶
This document describes a two-way street. Moderators must also maintain excellence.¶
One problem with failing to be excellent to each other is that people wander off. Then, documents don't get the security review they require.¶
This document has no IANA actions.¶