Hi Barry,
I thank you to open this discussion. I tried to open this discussion before on the list but was ignored, however, seeing your input made me think that there is importance to the subject. IMO I prefer the discussion list, because we all integrate and we all are present in its domain. In F2F meeting their is a certain time to meet and limited discussions and limited input. Please note that most of the input of IETF is done on the list not within F2F meetings. However, still we need F2F meetings to insure/encourage the directions of work/discussions.
WG F2F meetings Main Purpose: Guidance, Directions, Sense Decisions, Interact with other WGs, Exchanging ideas and questions, Marketing, interaction with other organisations, etc.
WG Discussion List Participations Purpose: announcements, feedbacks, The documented Work flow Processings, Making WG decisions, checking concensus, questions and answers, editing work/drafts, arguments, etc.
I thought this is already in the IETF procedure that we are following, so maybe the question is are we following best practices or we just are following some people. I think so far that participants are sometimes following and sometimes not, which is disapointment (some one asked me once on the list why I was disapointed this is one reason).
Regards
AB