1.1. The IETF discussion list is not representative
>8
As of writing, the IETF discussion list has 1,751 members who have
made their e-mail address public; 29 members have not made their
addresses public.
Comparing its membership to a sample of other IETF mailing lists, we
find that there are typically many members that are not taking part
on the IETF discussion list:
+-------------+---------+---------+----------------+
| List | Members | Overlap | % on IETF list |
+-------------+---------+---------+----------------+
| 6MAN | 1,698 | 246 | 14.5% |
| DISPATCH | 436 | 111 | 25.5% |
| DNSOP | 1,041 | 204 | 19.6% |
| GENDISPATCH | 54 | 37 | 68.5% |
| OPSAWG | 423 | 100 | 23.6% |
| QUIC | 853 | 121 | 14.2% |
| RTGWG | 610 | 119 | 19.5% |
| SECDISPATCH | 153 | 50 | 32.7% |
| TLS | 1,257 | 134 | 10.7% |
| WEBTRANS | 110 | 39 | 35.5% |
| WPACK | 98 | 24 | 24.5% |
+-------------+---------+---------+----------------+
When combined, the lists above have 5,355 unique addresses
subscribed; only 628 (11.7%) of them are on the IETF discussion list.
Whether there are 628 or 1751 participants on the IETF list, it is still an order of magnitude more representative than the miserable tally of 54 subscribers to the GENDISPATCH list.
As has been noted elsewhere, moving discussion of contentious issues off the IETF list is a ruse by political axe-grinders and apparatchiks to avoid challenge or proper scrutiny.
Dick Franks
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