David MacQuigg <dmq(_at_)gain(_dot_)com> writes:
Gentlemen, This sub-thread went off-topic long ago. I like Dave
Crocker's suggestion of starting a new thread, and keeping each one on a
narrow topic. The topic here is what should the IETF be doing?
The IETF should be doing what the IETF has always done, namely provide a
forum for publication of interoperable network standards, provide vetting
by experienced standards authors to make sure that those standards are
interoperable and work well with the rest of the Internet infrastructure,
and document and standardize solutions that have been successful in the
real world.
As near as I can tell, this is exactly what the IETF is doing. Yes, there
is a great deal of chaos right now around spam within the IETF, with
multiple different solutions being proposed. I submit that's partly
because, and for exactly the same reasons, that there is even more chaos
around spam outside the IETF. It's a chaotic subject. We don't know what
we're doing yet, for a very broad definition of "we."
If you see some useful lower-level interoperable substrate that you think
should be standardized independent of any specific system, then by all
means write that up as an I-D so that people can see what it looks like
and see if you can get the people who are working on the different systems
to agree on it. But telling other people that they should go work on that
instead of what they're currently working on probably isn't going to
produce any useful results. Maybe you're in a better position to see the
big picture than they are; I honestly don't know. But if they felt like
that was the most productive approach, I expect they'd already be working
on it.
--
Russ Allbery (rra(_at_)stanford(_dot_)edu)
<http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>