Re: IETF Last Call under RFC 3683 concerning JFC (Jefsey) Morfin

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Hi.

I agree that Jefsey's participation in LTRU and the ietf-languages
lists has been problematic.


Even by his own admission Jefsey has been engaging in filibustering--a
practice that I think we would agree is disruptive.  Take a look at
his most recent appeal to the IESG
(http://www.ietf.org/IESG/APPEALS/jefsey-morfin-appeal.txt ); quoting
from that appeal:

This is why I chose to give the necessary time to common
sense to prevail, in exposing their mistakes in a way they could
forced to correct some of them. The democratic method for that is
work and filibustering. Filibustering is not pleasant. But it
permitted to obtain what users' protection demanded:


As such, I agree that we need to adopt a strategy that prevents Jefsey
from disrupting our processes excessively.

However a PR action is an incredibly huge hammer.  If passed, it
removes any process barrier to shutting Jefsey out of any IETF
process.  While this PR action is specifically targeted at the
ietf-languages list it would give the person running any IETF list the
ability to unilaterally remove Jefsey from that list.


Perhaps this is an appropriate measure to take when all of a person's
participation are destructive and they have nothing to offer.


That's not true for Jefsey.  Jefsy has made significant positive
contributions to the IETF list.  He has worked to describe the
perceptions that the IETF, IANA, ICAN, and related entities are
creating a US-centric Internet.  He has described concerns of global
users and how our protocols, including IDN, may not meet user
requirements.  These concerns are real and parts of them have been
worked on by long-standing members of the community.  Take a look at
RFC 4185 for an example of a concern that Jefsey shares that members
of this organization have spent time working on.  I personally have
found Jefsey's formulations of these concerns enlightening; I think he
has significantly helped me understand how the IETF might be perceived
and what some user concerns with our protocol might be.

I've also found some of his security comments and some of his comments
on IETF process issues useful.


So, I think it would be inappropriate to apply this hammer in this
case.  Instead, I propose that we find a tool appropriate for the
problem: a way of limiting Jefsey's ability to block progress in areas
where he is clearly blocking our work but not preventing him from
participating in the IETF.


I'd first ask why repeated 30-day suspensions are ineffective.  Harald
seems to be getting fairly efficient at suspending Jefsey on
ietf-languages.  I believe he's been suspended on LTRU before.  Is
Jefsey actually doing much damage there with all these suspensions?

If so, why not give Harald and the LTRU chairs the ability to suspend
Jefsey for longer?  That might involve a new BCP (or a process
experiment), but if we determine the existing tools are inadequate
then that seems like a reasonable option.  How would a six month
suspension be insufficient?  Do we really need an unlimited suspension
to get work done?

Finally, if we somehow all convince ourselves that asking chairs to
revisit suspending Jefsey every six months is unacceptable then what
about creating way to suspend Jefsey from langtags related issues but
not other IETF lists?  

Sure, Jefsey is annoying on the ietf list, but is he really so much
worse than me ranting about fairness and openness, Keith ranting about
architecture or Dave Crocker ranting about timely standards
development that we cannot have a place for him?  Speaking as an
individual, if I had to pick conversations to have un-had on the IETF
list, there are ones higher on my list than Jefsey.

Thanks for your consideration,

--Sam


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