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rfc:rfc4633

Network Working Group S. Hartman Request for Comments: 4633 MIT Category: Experimental August 2006

             Experiment in Long-Term Suspensions From
        Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Mailing Lists

Status of This Memo

 This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
 community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
 Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

Abstract

 Discussion in the community has begun to question whether RFC 3683
 and RFC 3934 provide the appropriate flexibility for managing
 Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) mailing lists.  This document
 is an RFC 3933 experiment designed to allow the community to
 experiment with a broader set of tools for mailing list management
 while trying to determine what the long-term guidelines should be.

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ....................................................1
 2. Requirements notation ...........................................3
 3. Definition of IETF Mailing List .................................3
 4. The Experiment ..................................................4
 5. How the Experiment May Be Used (Informative) ....................4
 6. Security Considerations .........................................5
 7. Acknowledgements ................................................5
 8. References ......................................................5
    8.1. Normative References .......................................5
    8.2. Informative References .....................................5

1. Introduction

 As discussed in RFC 3683, the IETF needs to have rules of conduct to
 limit disruptive or abusive behavior while permitting a fair and open
 forum for the discussion of Internet standardization.  The IETF has a
 long and complicated history of rules for managing conduct on its
 mailing lists.

Hartman Experimental [Page 1] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

 RFC 2418 [RFC2418] permitted individuals to be blocked from posting
 to a mailing list: "As a last resort and after explicit warnings, the
 Area Director, with the approval of the IESG, may request that the
 mailing list maintainer block the ability of the offending individual
 to post to the mailing list."  RFC 2418 also allowed other forms of
 mailing list control to be applied with the approval of the area
 director and Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  However,
 RFC 2418 applied only to working group mailing lists.
 The IETF discussion list charter [RFC3005] provides guidelines for
 ietf@ietf.org.  These guidelines provide more flexibility than RFC
 2418.  "The IETF Chair, the IETF Executive Director, or a sergeant-
 at-arms appointed by the Chair is empowered to restrict posting by a
 person, or of a thread, when the content is inappropriate and
 represents a pattern of abuse.  They are encouraged to take into
 account the overall nature of the postings by an individual and
 whether particular postings are an aberration or typical.  Complaints
 regarding their decisions should be referred to the IAB."  In
 particular it appears that these decisions do not follow the normal
 appeals path outlined in RFC 2026 [RFC2026].
 RFC 3683 [RFC3683] provides a procedure for banning named individuals
 from posting to an IETF mailing list for at least one year.  However
 once such a ban is put in place for one mailing list, the individuals
 responsible for other IETF mailing lists can unilaterally remove the
 posting rights of that individual.
 RFC 3934 [RFC3934] amends RFC 2418 and grants the working group chair
 the ability to suspend a member's posting rights for 30 days.
 However, it appears to remove the ability of the AD and IESG to
 approve longer suspensions or alternative procedures: "Other methods
 of mailing list control, including longer suspensions, must be
 carried out in accordance with other IETF-approved procedures."  An
 argument could be made that the amendment was not intended to remove
 the already-approved procedures in RFC 2418, although a perhaps
 stronger argument can be made that the actual textual changes have
 the effect of removing these procedures.
 The IESG has issued a statement on mailing list management [IESGLIST]
 that allows working group mailing lists to be moderated.  Under this
 procedure, specific off-topic postings could be discarded.  However,
 this procedure does not allow the posting rights of an individual to
 be suspended; it simply allows the list as a whole to be moderated.
 The IESG issued a statement on disruptive postings [IESGDISRUPT] .
 This statement applies procedures similar to RFC 3934 and to the
 statement on moderated lists to non-working group lists.

Hartman Experimental [Page 2] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

 The result of these guidelines is that there is a large gap between
 the levels of sanction that can be applied.  An individual can be
 suspended from a working group list easily for 30 days.  However, the
 only option available to the IESG that permits a longer suspension
 for any list besides ietf@ietf.org is the ability to suspend an
 individual for an indefinite time period from one list.  This
 suspension can expand to any IETF list without community or IESG
 involvement.  This memo is an RFC 3933 [RFC3933] experiment to
 provide the IESG with the ability to create additional mechanisms to
 manage IETF mailing lists while the community decides what mailing
 list guidelines are appropriate.  In particular, this experiment
 allows the IESG to create a level of sanction between RFC 3934 and
 RFC 3683 for working group lists and to create sanctions other than
 RFC 3683 for non-working group lists.  The goal of this experiment is
 to improve the functioning of IETF mailing lists while keeping the
 process open and fair.  This experiment is successful if it gives the
 community useful input on how to design a mailing list management
 process.  It is not expected that this experiment will be adopted in
 its current form as a permanent Best Current Practice (BCP).

2. Requirements notation

 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3. Definition of IETF Mailing List

 This experiment applies to all IETF mailing lists, including those
 not associated with a working group.  The definition of a working
 group list is clear, but the definition of an IETF mailing list
 comprehensive enough to include all IETF mailing lists is not
 obvious.  For the purpose of this experiment, an IETF mailing list is
 defined as follows.
 An "IETF mailing list" is defined as the IETF list itself, any
 mailing list operated to further the work of a current IETF Working
 Group (WG), any mailing list created for WG use but retained for
 ongoing discussion after that WG was shut down, any mailing list
 created in support of an IETF-specified procedure (including mailing
 lists whose purpose is the discussion of registration actions), and
 any mailing list hosted on any site or system operated by the IASA or
 otherwise on behalf of the IETF.  Mailing lists listed at
 https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/nwg_list.cgi are explicitly
 included in this definition.

Hartman Experimental [Page 3] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

4. The Experiment

 This experiment runs for a period of 18 months.  During the
 experiment period, the IESG MAY approve other methods of mailing list
 control besides those outlined in RFC 3683 and RFC 3934 to be used on
 a specified set of IETF mailing lists.  Such methods include but are
 not limited to suspending the posting rights of an individual beyond
 30 days on those lists.  Under such procedures the IESG may delegate
 the authority to perform longer-term suspensions of specific
 individuals on specific mailing lists.
 The procedures of this memo MUST NOT be used to suspend the posting
 rights of an individual beyond the period of the experiment.  The
 procedures of this memo MUST NOT be used to limit an individual's
 ability to read the contents of a mailing list.
 The IESG MUST inform the community in a public statement of any
 procedures for mailing list management approved under this
 experiment.  Such a statement should include the description of the
 procedure and the description of mailing lists to which it applies or
 an indication that it applies to all IETF mailing lists.  The IESG
 MUST make a public announcement of a new procedure at least 14 days
 prior to the procedure taking effect.  Although the community is
 encouraged to comment on any IESG action, community consensus is not
 required to approve such a procedure.  All currently active
 procedures under this experiment MUST be made public in an
 appropriate, easy-to-find location.
 Sanctions made under this memo may be appealed using the procedures
 outlined in [RFC2026].

5. How the Experiment May Be Used (Informative)

 The IESG could approve a procedure allowing it to suspend an
 individual from one or more mailing lists for a fixed period of time
 greater than 30 days.
 Also, the IESG could delegate this power.  Two types of delegation
 are envisioned.  In the first, the IESG has a procedure that allows
 it to suspend a named individual from a list and to grant the
 managers of that list the delegated authority to continue to apply
 longer suspensions if disruptive behavior continues.  In the second,
 the IESG approves a procedure that specifies a set of lists and
 allows managers of those lists to take action unilaterally after an
 initial suspension in a manner similar to RFC 3683.

Hartman Experimental [Page 4] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

6. Security Considerations

 This document describes a modification to the IETF process for
 managing mailing list discussions.  It has no security
 considerations.

7. Acknowledgements

 I would like to thank Brian Carpenter and John Klensin for valuable
 input in drafting this experiment.

8. References

8.1. Normative References

 [RFC2026]      Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process --
                Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.
 [RFC2119]      Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [RFC3933]      Klensin, J. and S. Dawkins, "A Model for IETF Process
                Experiments", BCP 93, RFC 3933, November 2004.

8.2. Informative References

 [IESGDISRUPT]  "IESG Statement on Disruptive Posting", URL
                http://www.ietf.org/IESG/STATEMENTS/statement-
                disruptive-posting.txt, February 2006.
 [IESGLIST]     "IESG guidance on the moderation of IETF Working Group
                Mailing Lists", URL
                http://www.ietf.org/IESG/STATEMENTS/moderated-
                lists.txt, August 2000.
 [RFC2418]      Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and
                Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.
 [RFC3005]      Harris, S., "IETF Discussion List Charter", BCP 45,
                RFC 3005, November 2000.
 [RFC3683]      Rose, M., "A Practice for Revoking Posting Rights to
                IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 83, RFC 3683, March 2004.
 [RFC3934]      Wasserman, M., "Updates to RFC 2418 Regarding the
                Management of IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 94, RFC 3934,
                October 2004.

Hartman Experimental [Page 5] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

Author's Address

 Sam Hartman
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
 EMail: hartmans-ietf@mit.edu

Hartman Experimental [Page 6] RFC 4633 Experimental Mailing List Control August 2006

Full Copyright Statement

 Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).
 This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
 contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
 retain all their rights.
 This document and the information contained herein are provided on an
 "AS IS" basis and THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS
 OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET
 ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
 INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE
 INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED
 WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Intellectual Property

 The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any
 Intellectual Property Rights or other rights that might be claimed to
 pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in
 this document or the extent to which any license under such rights
 might or might not be available; nor does it represent that it has
 made any independent effort to identify any such rights.  Information
 on the procedures with respect to rights in RFC documents can be
 found in BCP 78 and BCP 79.
 Copies of IPR disclosures made to the IETF Secretariat and any
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 attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of
 such proprietary rights by implementers or users of this
 specification can be obtained from the IETF on-line IPR repository at
 http://www.ietf.org/ipr.
 The IETF invites any interested party to bring to its attention any
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 rights that may cover technology that may be required to implement
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Acknowledgement

 Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
 Administrative Support Activity (IASA).

Hartman Experimental [Page 7]

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