On 21 Dec 2000 at 14:24 -0500, Ken Hornstein apparently wrote:
Being open does not mean that new arrivals are free from learning the
special handshakes and the technical peculiarities of our work; they are
Hm, my mistake, I guess. I read on the IETF web page that the IETF didn't
have any secret handshakes; I guess I was wrong :-)
Dave slipped up in revealing the existence of secret handshakes, and
we're not going to tell him about the new one.
As for the rest ... yes, I think new people need to gather a few clues
but it doesn't take many. I guess the first clue is to realize how much
of your time making real contributions takes. If you're willing to do
real work I think you're accepted immediately -- especially if your work
is any good :-).