--On Thursday, August 13, 2015 05:25 +0900 Randy Bush
<randy(_at_)psg(_dot_)com> wrote:
Anything said in any RFC, regardless of status, can be
overridden by a replacement RFC if the latter gets consensus.
even camus did not conclude that, because the world is absurd,
that we should not act.
Unlike Roy, Joe, and some others, I don't fundamentally object
to reclassifying 1984 (and object less if the BCP category
sweeps up other documents that are judged similar). Independent
of the principles 1984 expresses, I am uncomfortable with making
a document with its statements and style a BCP, but I'm
pragmatic about that and can live with it if we are clear about
what we are doing and why. I do feel that we should have some
justification that makes sense. The SAAG meeting discussion
has been cited frequently, but I can find nothing in the IETF-93
minutes that identifies the motivation and justification and
what appear to be a few votes (including that only half the
people in the room claimed to understand the issues).
If people believe it is time to make another political statement
but see the best way to do that as reclassifying 1984 rather
than that writing a new statement, that is ok with me as long as
we understand that political statements can have costs and that
we are willing to accept those costs.
Finally, I don't want to see bogus justifications because they
ultimately discredit the IETF, however slightly. The statement
you quote above was caused by comments that seemed to imply
that, if we moved 1984 to BCP, it would somehow provide
"insurance" against the IETF doing work of the variety
discouraged by 1984 in the future even if there was strong
pressure, perhaps even consensus within the community, to do so.
I think that "insurance" claim is bogus. YMMD, of course.
While I would hope that the people who want this change really
have (quoting Stephen) "a common motivation". I think it is
obligatory to pull out the motivations, be explicit about them,
and discard those that don't hold water. If those come down to
"because it makes us feel good", I'm ok with that as long as
there is at least rough consensus behind the statement.
Again, YMMD... and many those who are strongly opposed to the
IETF doing "political" things probably dislike my position and
concerns as much as they dislike statements of the 1984 sort,
BCP or not.
john