From: Pete Resnick (presnick@qualcomm.com)
Date: Mon May 05 2003 - 12:19:03 CDT
Sorry to pick on Seth in public; he's certainly not anywhere near the
worst offender. But since he seems to be a nice enough guy, I assume
he won't take too much offense if I use him as an example.
On 5/5/03 at 11:35 AM -0400, Seth Breidbart wrote:
>I also see no interoperability reason, indeed no reason other than
>"philosophically, it's nicer" to not require the space.
On 5/1/03 at 1:25 PM -0500, I wrote:
>I see no consensus at all to remove this restriction. Let's move on.
Uh, I'll repeat it because obviously I have to: LET'S MOVE ON.
Please, everyone: Pause before you post. Bruce was, as I remember,
the only one on this list requesting the the space after the colon
requirement be removed. There were plenty of responses, most notably
Russ's where he identified a widely deployed implementation which
failed to deliver messages when the space was missing. I consider
most of the messages after that one, and any message after 29 April,
completely superfluous and a waste of bandwidth. Rough consensus was
clear. Having the last word didn't (and won't in the future) change
your faithful chairs' opinions of what the rough consensus is.
This group has a nasty habit of sending messages because people think
it is important to have the last word. Stop it, please.
- If you find yourself typing something like "As I said before....",
erase it. Assume your chairs (the ones who are judging concensus of
the group) have read and understood it (until you see evidence to the
contrary).
- If you find your self typing something like "You idiot! Can't you
read what Joe Schmo posted in response to that!", erase it. Assume
your chairs have read it, that they can figure out that the "idiot"
hasn't read it, and that they will understand the appropriate result
of the argument (until you see evidence to the contrary).
- If you think another working group member is being stupid in
response to one of your messages, don't immediately respond to the
list. Assume instead that he or she is a great deal *smarter than
you* and that you have obviously missed something. Send private
e-mail. Work it out off list. If, in a day or two, you're not getting
anywhere, then post to the list.
- If one person says something that you disagree with, and someone
else responds to it in a way that you think completely answers it,
and the first person persists with the same mistaken view, ignore
them. If the chairs are confused about the right answer, they'll ask
on the list. Otherwise, assume your chairs have actually passed intro
logic in college and can see when an argument has been won.
- Try to keep your postings down to 3 a day as a general rule. Think
about things. Save up responses. A flood of messages is less useful
than a single thought out one that responds crisply to all arguments.
Please, PLEASE, post only those responses minimally necessary. Post
only that which is important to getting the job done. (Though the
history of ARPANET and UUCP was just "so-much-fun" to read, it did
not move this discussion forward one inch.) We're here to do work,
not hear ourselves talk.
More on other topics later.
pr
-- Pete Resnick <mailto:presnick@qualcomm.com> QUALCOMM Incorporated - Direct phone: (858)651-4478, Fax: (858)651-1102