"Tomson Eric (Yahoo.fr)" <Tomson_Eric@Yahoo.fr> wrote: > Should this list be open to ANYbody (any curious/interested netizen), > or limited to proven... well... specialists? experts? I advocate open. First, who is to say who is an expert? Shall we require N years of experience with a particular technology before letting people even discuss it? That just raises the bar to BECOMING an expert. Second, I for one have found great value in participating in some lists on subjects that were new to me. (Of course, that's mostly lurking; it might be fruitful in this thread to separate lurking and posting.) Third, sometimes a fresh perspective is useful. At times, I have even managed to make some valuable contributions on lists where I was there mainly to learn. (See RFC 3458, for example.) Fourth, we already have mechanisms in place to deal with disruptive behavior. Fifth, as Robert Heinlein wrote, "Specialization is for insects." > I think this IETF discussion list is like a combination of the IEEE > and the ISOC : the IEEE is limited to certified engineers, Even that isn't quite that closed. I joined in '88 or so, never having been certified as anything. (I ran away before the nice young men in their clean white coats arrived with the butterfly nets.) However, I did have to get a member to vouch for me. > extracted from IETF's web site : [...] > This list is meant for initial discussion only. Discussions that fall > within the area of any working group or well established list should > be moved to such more specific forum as soon as this is pointed out, Heh. Guilty as charged. We should all move the spam thread to the IRTF's ASRG, ASAP, IMHO. YMMV. HTH. HAND. -- David J. Aronson, Unemployed Software Engineer near Washington DC See http://destined.to/program/ for online resume, and other info