The below from Tom Petch captures my opinion. I have sympathy with more or less all the notes from all the factions in this discussion, which instantly stops when they say or imply “… and that’s why it’s OK to be rude.” I just don’t think that’s ever OK in the context of an open-to-all mailing list representing the public face of something that claims to be a standards organization. That includes when discouraging a dumb idea that is being proposed for the seventeenth time.
On Wed, Jun 22, 2022 at 1:32 AM tom petch <daedulus@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think that that exemplifies a universal truth that is often missed and
is perhaps the core of this discussion.
First, criticise the behaviour never the person.
Second, own it; not 'that is stupid' but 'I think that ...' ideally with
logical reasons, never with emotional ones.
It took me a long time to realise how much nicer the world is when I
remember this and, even now, I sometimes need to remind myself (as in
opposing the adoption of an I-D which I am about to do). I would
sacrifice all the spell-checkers in the world for a reasonableness
checker along these lines.
Tom Petch
