On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 08:53:15AM +0100, Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote: > On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 05:08:31AM +0100, > Harald Tveit Alvestrand <harald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote > a message of 28 lines which said: > > > we had this exact problem with the many identities of "Jeff > > Williams"; he had enough pseudo-personalities on the list that he > > would sometimes claim to have a majority, jut from his own postings. > > Since IETF does not vote, it is certainly not an issue here? Well, it can be an issue in terms of determining rough consensus. Suppose you have 100 sock puppets all with gmail or hotmail accounts, all claiming that some approach which all of the key technologists and experts in the field and RFC authors have rejected, is really the right way to go. We can do straw polls in face to face meetings, but in theory, all decisions are supposed to be confirmed on the mailing list. Suppose 100 (presumed) sock puppets who all just happen to have the same fracturered logic and writing styles as JFC show up on LTRU and claim that they are driving consensus. RFC 3683 evasion aside, it could certainly cause cause problems for a working group chair who is trying to determine consensus, such that said chair might want to confirm whether or not 100 posters to the mailing list, all with pseudonyms derived from the name of of French pioneers/heros, were in fact distinct people. After all, they could all argue that the nonsense they are spouting is in fact deep received wisdom, and it's a minority of the working group who don't understand their reasoning, and so therefore the positions of their Great Leader JFC, is in fact rough consensus. :-) - Ted _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf