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Re: Possible RFC 3683 PR-action

2008-03-25 12:37:20
On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 02:23:42PM -0400, Edward Lewis wrote:
I do cringe when anyone says "not wearing any hats" - especially when 
I don't know what hat they might be wearing at any given time.  I 
know it's a time-honed (not honored) tradition in the IETF but I 
don't think it's a good thing.  Taking off hats, that is.

When I've used that phrase, it's almost always meant "not wearning any
IETF hats".  That is, this is my own personal opinion, to be reviewed
on its own merits, and not based on any role-based authority I might
have as document editor or working group chair to determine consensus.

I've most commonly heard it from Area Directors, who want to make it
clear that this is their own personal preference, and not something
which should be interpreted by the working group as, "Make this change
or when it comes up before the IESG I'll vote DISCUSS and your
standard will never progress!  Bwa-hah-hah-hah!"  :-)

Of course, very often an AD is very much an technical expert, and
their opinion will carry much more weight than someone random that no
one knows.  And most AD's would never try to impose their will using
the DISCUSS blunt instrument unless there's something very badly
wrong.  But sometimes folks are too easily over-awed by titles, so it
can be useful for people to reinforce that he's disclaiming any
role-based authority when making a comment.

Regards,

                                                        - Ted
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