Subject: Re: Respecting the IETF rough consensus process

From: [email-masked] (Noel Chiappa)
Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2013 12:24:20 -0500 (EST)

> From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>

    > I'm a fan of consensus decision-making processes and will generally -
    > but not always - advocate for their use. I think that this is one of
    > those "not always" cases.

I'm wondering if the translation of this is: 'it's OK in this case because I
(mostly) agree with the outcome', which of course will inevitably lead
(someday) to: 'if we ever do a non-consensus decision, and I'm on the losing
side of that one, I won't be anywhere near as happy that we threw out that
particular baby'.

Just one more variant of that old adage 'be careful what you wish for'.

	Noel

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From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 09:33:11 -0800

> side of that one, I won't be anywhere near as happy that we threw out that

Not really.  It's just that my experience has been that
1) it's absolutely the case that the IETF does not reach
all "management" decisions through consensus decision-
making processes, and 2) it is impossible to reach consensus
among thousands of people of diverse backgrounds on nearly
any non-trivial matter on which reasonable people can
disagree, and relying on the ability to do so leads to
either calcification or disingenuous wording of questions.

Melinda