Subject: Another dumb idea...

From: Martin Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:58:00 +0000

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Rather than routing around the problem of having too many attendees
once they actually get to the IETF, how about nipping it in the bud
beforehand ?  For instance, asking would-be attendees some simple
technical questions which must be correctly answered in order to
proceed with registration ? :-)

Should be pretty easy to automate by soliciting questions from
volunteers (there seem to be a few people here...) and choosing say
five at random for an HTML form preceding the registration form.
Don't reveal the answers, just give a simple Walk/Don't Walk response
as the next step.

The truly determined could still work their way through - eventually, 
but I'm betting the process would put off a lot of the goers.  The 
doers shouldn't have any problems answering half a dozen simple 
technical questions...

Ciao!

Martin

PS I know, this has (at least) two faults :-

1) Your Pointy Haired Boss bullies you into giving answers out so
  they can register the whole of Marketing
2) Discriminates against non-technical types.  But should they be
  coming in the first place ?  <ducks>

It also assumes that the problem is having too many clueless (in a
technical sense :-) people wanting to come, as opposed to (say) too
many clueful people.  There isn't really a metric of cluefulness at
the moment, but there would be if a scheme like this was taken up!

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From: Vernon Schryver <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1998 10:30:20 -0700 (MST)

> I was thinking about something along the lines of:
>
>   The acronym 'TCP' is short for: (pick one)
>     * Transfer Control Protocol
>     * Transmission Coordination Program
>     * Total Control Process
>     * Transmission Control Protocol
>     * Terminal Control Protocol
>     * Terminally Cool People
>
> ;-)

That example test exemplifies the problems of such testing.

Regardless of the value of the work, who besides a go-er would be willing
to act as such a bouncer/test-giver, or be willing to spend the time acting
as a bouncer instead of talking about the real technical stuff?

It's an odd fact of nature that active go-ers are more likely than useful
contributors to remember the words behind acronyms.  You tend to not pay
attention to the title page of an RFC you first saw 15 years ago, you
never use the full title of the protocol, and so you tend to forget what
the acronym means.  Consider also that firmly superficial interests are
a good summary of what distinguishes a noisy go-er from a useful
contributor.  What is more superficial than the words behind "T-C-P"?

The only solution to the IETF meeting size is to accept the fact that the
IETF meetings are inevitably (albeit slowly) recapituating the evolution
of the Spring/Fall Joint Computer Conferences, InterOp, and the others.
It can't be long before hotels hosting the IETF meetings realize that they
could make some money by arranging an accidentally coincident tradeshow
nearby, so that vendors could demonstrate stuff.  The hardware behind the
terminal room and wireless support is the camel's nose well inside the
tent.

Except for the kooks, the mailinglists still work and are effective.
Accept the full implications of the IETF dogma that the mailinglists are
supposed be the authoritative forums, and that the meetings are merely
for bursts of negotiations that are later validated on the mailinglists.
If you don't like crowds, then do as I do, and remain entirely virtual.

Vernon Schryver    [email-masked]

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From: "R. Lizardo" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 08:55:19 +0800

>On Fri, 18 Dec 1998 12:58:00 GMT, you said:
>"What is your name?" "I am Arthur, King of the Britons."
>"What is your quest?" "I seek the holy grail."
>"What is your favorite color...."
>

add this up!

"You are entering a restricted area, unauthorized person are not allowed!"
"You must provide a valid password to enter, what is your password?"

Merry Christmas to all

R. Lizardo

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From: "R. Lizardo" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 08:55:19 +0800

add this up!

Merry Christmas to all

R. Lizardo