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Re: Atompub WG Work Plan


At 3:14 PM -0700 6/23/04, Tim Bray wrote:
- Drafts with the "do not implement" mark removed published by Halloween

For those outside the US and cultures too-heavily influenced by the US, "Halloween" is October 31.

- The Chairs' duties will be mostly keeping debate civil and moving along, and
  ascertaining when the consensus is good enough.  We may occasionally use
  straw polls.

In this case, "we" means the WG chairs. Folks on the mailing list cannot start their own straw poll, but they can certainly ask the chairs to hold one. There is a long history in the IETF of individuals using straw polls to try split the group into two camps instead of trying to come to consensus. Unfortunately, this tactic often works well.

If the WG chairs can't see a consensus, we might use a straw poll or some other method to get the group to general agreement. We want a standard that reflects the best efforts of everyone, including those who didn't get their way on some issues.

Instead of a straw poll, a WG member might ask a more open-ended question such as "here are two sets of wording that I think are both technically good; which do people prefer?" Just don't call it a straw poll.

- Email to the list that does not contain an Issue ID in the title or the
  phrase "Propose new Issue" is apt to be ignored, at least by the chairs,
  secretary, and editors.

If you change the subject line of a thread (and this is often useful after a thread has wandered away from the original intent), be sure that the Issue ID is in the new subject.

- The chairs will eventually declare that a good-enough rough consensus exists
  to mark an issue "Proceed" and turn the issue over to the editors to
  attempt to work the proposed language into the draft.  This will often
  require a bit more editorial creativity than you'd expect.

...and may thus be imperfect in the first draft that has the wording. That's what future drafts are for. We hope to go through many drafts, each time getting better. If the first draft that contains an agreed-on feature has bad wording, don't freak out, and certainly don't attribute it to malice on anyone's part. Send better wording to the list.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium