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Re: IETF web site behind CloudFlare

2014-09-18 20:05:33
On 9/18/14 5:18 PM, Stephen Farrell wrote:

Doug,

Not attacking your POV, but I would like to try pose another perhaps
more positive take on this...

On 18/09/14 19:38, Doug Barton wrote:
"But we're just a bunch of volunteers!" is not only not an adequate
excuse, it's a serious negative in that space.

"We are volunteers and we work well and hard on stuff that we find
useful, (some of which has changed the world)" seems to me to be a
better characterisation of the situation and also something to shout
from an occasional rooftop. That others might not get or think badly
of that is frequently not our problem, and is often theirs. I figure
that applies to tooling just as much as the rest of what we do (when
we do it well:-)

Your words are awesome, and well-stated. But tragically meaningless in the context of things like WSIS, IGF, etc. The governments and other entities that would like to control the Internet look for, and exploit, every weakness they can find to assert their claims, whether that's "fair" or not.

"The IETF is a professional, well-run organization that produces widely accepted standards on which the Internet operates. Many of its functions are performed by volunteers." That is a powerful, world-changing narrative.

"The IETF does the best it can with what it has, and we often do really cool stuff, plus we care, a super-duper lot!" doesn't even get you a cup of coffee.

It's fine and dandy for you to say "They just don't get it," and "That's their problem." My point is that it will, in time, become OUR problem, whether we want it to or not.

Doug