On 6/25/18 12:52 AM, John C Klensin wrote:
--On Sunday, June 24, 2018 17:14 -0700 Randy Bush
<randy@xxxxxxx> wrote:
but didn't detect great enthusiasm in the community for
dealing with authorship ethics in general.
how embarrassing and shameful
Randy,
While I agree that this is embarrassing and shameful (and could
add other words), I question one aspect of your earlier note.
At least until the IAB decides to micromanage that, an erratum
and its appropriateness is determined by the discretion of the
RFC Series Editor. The term is arguably not precisely correct
for the way we use the things and I've seen many of them whose
subject matter or content would not be appropriate if the
classic publisher definition were used.
So I would recommend a conversation with Heather (copied) and
use of the errata mechanism, at least unless she strongly
disagrees and wants to propose another mechanism. That would at
least get citation on the record. While I'm not optimistic, if
author(s) are shamed sufficiently to not omit such citations in
the future, that would be A Good Thing. I think all of us
should be encouraged to watch for obvious omissions on Last Call
and would encourage document shepherds and responsible ADs (in
the IETF Stream) and reviewers (in others) to pay attention to
the issue.
Heather does not disagree - the errata system is the best mechanism we
have at this time, and it does allow an author to respond as needed.
I would suggest to Heather that a mention of this as the Style
Guide evolves would probably also be a good thing -- it isn't as
if adding relevant citations is difficult or costly.
This is going to be a bit trickier. I'm supportive of adding something
about author ethics, but it would be along the lines of "the RFC Editor
will not be checking on this; you should do this because it's the right
thing." We don't have the resources to do a full-on review of the
literature; if the IETF wants that as a priority, we'll need to talk
about costs and/or reprioritizing other RFC Editor activities.
I think a note on the IETF norms for referencing other RFCs to be a good
thing to include in the Tao.
-Heather
We will probably never get everything right, but we can try
harder.
best,
john
