The IESG has received a request (see http://www.ietf.org/IESG/APPEALS/morfin-appeal-ietf-languages-list.txt) from JFC Morfin to overturn the suspension of his posting privileges to the ietf-languages mailing list. Since this appeal is similar in one critical aspect to a previous appeal overturned by the IAB for the lack of IESG explanation, this appeal will describe in more detail the process by which the IESG reached its conclusion. The IETF's procedures are aimed at a fundamental goal of making the standards process work, but they will never cover every possible circumstance. Where there is no enumerated procedure, the traditional practice of the IETF and the reasonable application of good sense is expected for managing situations. If that were not permitted, the IETF would grind to a halt in process discussions. There is no enumerated procedure at this point for managing non-WG mailing lists. That may change in the future, but until it does list managers must be guided by traditional IETF practice and by their responsibility to manage the lists in the interest of the IETF's fundamental goals. In this instance, Harald Alvestrand set out a process by which he would manage the ietf-languages list. He did so publicly, in advance of the application of that process, and by pointing to a documented process which had achieved IETF consensus as a model. The IESG believes that this was a reasonable way to achieve the goals of following the traditional practice of the IETF and judging what actions would be considered reasonable by the community. After reviewing the list traffic leading up to this suspension, the IESG upholds the suspension of J-F. C. Morfin from the IETF languages list, as we concur with the judgement of its list manager. To clarify two additional points raised by this appeal, the IESG confirms that the list ietf-languages@iana.org and the ietf-languages@alvestrand.no are equivalent, as one is simply a redirect of the other. This mailing list practice does not affect the role the list plays in the IETF. We also confirm that the IETF language reviewer remains Michael Everson. _______________________________________________ IETF-Announce@ietf.org https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-announce
