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Re: Last calling draft-resnick-on-consensus

2013-10-07 00:45:58
On 10/6/13 7:30 PM, Mark Nottingham wrote:
This is a VERY useful document, and I look forward to compelling my WG 
participants to read it, with a pop quiz afterwards.

I've been exceedingly satisfied to hear this sort of thing from you and the other folks who posted and talked to me about this.

The only issue I see is its length; while dedicated IETFers won't have a 
problem reading such a lengthy document, the people who could benefit most - 
new, potential or casual participants - will give up early, I fear.

Could we have someone take an editorial knife to it? Some of the descriptions 
of situations are quite long, and there's a fair amount of repetition in the 
document. Some of the paragraphs are quite long as well. I reckon 2-4 pages 
could be saved, making it appealing to a much wider audience.

I would be really disappointed by this. Indeed, my primary target was not at all new or casual participants; it was really intended for the dedicated folks and the chairs. I hope this is the start of a serious discussion in the IETF, not a primer for how the IETF works at a high level. For newer folks, I'm fine with the idea that some of this can be either incorporated into the Tao or the newcomer's orientation, or separated into a smaller primer document. But I really believe the long form is needed for real discussions among folks in the community.

Beyond that, the only suggestion I'd make is an alternate title -- "Why We Hum." Or maybe 
"The Things We Hum And Do Not Say" (apologies to Jerry Maguire).

And here I was originally paying homage to Wittgenstein, though it even got too long for that. Taken under advisement.

Now, off to tackle Dave's excellent (and extensive) review.

pr

--
Pete Resnick<http://www.qualcomm.com/~presnick/>
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. - +1 (858)651-4478