So... here's the problem.
Personally, I object to the suggestion that my "vote" should be counted one way or another if I am silent. At most, it should be counted as "no strong opinion". Or should I now start responding to all the Last Calls with "I don't care about this, so please don't count me as supporting it"?
Our technology support for "do we have consensus" stinks. We ask for feedback to a mailing list, knowing that "me, too" postings are (and should be) discouraged in most shared e-mail environments. What we get is exactly what you described - postings from a non-random subset of participants, and then we try to figure out what the sampling error is, and in which direction, based on not a lot more information. There is a safety mechanism, because when we REALLY miscount we can be appealed, but we don't use it often, and it's really an expensive mechanism to use.
Sometimes chairs even remember to say, "we also need to hear from people who AGREE", but not always. The mailing list archives would be even worse if everyone DID respond to all the Last Calls, so we need to be careful about what we ask for...
It shouldn't be a vote (we don't vote - I know you know this, because you put "vote" in quotes), but if we had some way to let people say "you know, I just don't care", that would help, too.
Spencer
_______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf