On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 02:23:42PM -0400, Edward Lewis wrote: > I do cringe when anyone says "not wearing any hats" - especially when > I don't know what hat they might be wearing at any given time. I > know it's a time-honed (not honored) tradition in the IETF but I > don't think it's a good thing. Taking off hats, that is. When I've used that phrase, it's almost always meant "not wearning any IETF hats". That is, this is my own personal opinion, to be reviewed on its own merits, and not based on any role-based authority I might have as document editor or working group chair to determine consensus. I've most commonly heard it from Area Directors, who want to make it clear that this is their own personal preference, and not something which should be interpreted by the working group as, "Make this change or when it comes up before the IESG I'll vote DISCUSS and your standard will never progress! Bwa-hah-hah-hah!" :-) Of course, very often an AD is very much an technical expert, and their opinion will carry much more weight than someone random that no one knows. And most AD's would never try to impose their will using the DISCUSS blunt instrument unless there's something very badly wrong. But sometimes folks are too easily over-awed by titles, so it can be useful for people to reinforce that he's disclaiming any role-based authority when making a comment. Regards, - Ted _______________________________________________ IETF mailing list IETF@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf