Re: Tolerance

[Eliot Lear <lear@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ole

I think this is a close call.  On the one hand, I understand your point: one could think that Ben jumped the gun.  On the other hand, maybe our standards really aren’t high enough, and we should be cautious about our language.  It’s an especially tough call when we have an emotional issue at hand.  And it’s even tougher if you don’t personally know or have a good feel for the individual.

For those who don’t know Mike, he is very much the gentleman who is every bit as passionate about this organization as he was when he paid the bills for it lo those many years ago.  For those who don’t know Ben, he is a deeply thoughtful person who is concerned as SAA about seeing that people not be deterred from participating in a constructive manner.

In fact to me, what is very difficult about this whole interchange is that everyone who has participated has done so with the best of intentions toward the organization and the Internet.  Never the less, there is a lack of trust on the part at least some towards others.  We need to work on that, as a community.

Eliot

On 5 Jul 2019, at 17:52, Ole Troan <otroan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I am concerned about the heavy handedness Michael StJohns received from the sergeant at arms and the IETF leadership. To me this feels like bullying and I would not have liked this to happen to me. This behavior by the leadership scares me away, the exact opposite of what is said to be intended. 

If we want diversity and tolerance, is it not exactly messages of criticism and challenges of power structures and the established truths we should be accepting of?

I at least are often more comfortable dealing with machines than humans. I am not very great at expressing myself and winning others over, and when nervous, not rarely saying the complete wrong thing.

If the requirements for participating here is going to be so high that understanding the finer nuances of the usage of stupidity is required unless one is called unprofessional, then I as a non-native English speaker is reluctant to participate. Certainly these sets of threads, portraying to make the IETF more accessible has done more to make me avoid voicing my opinion on the IETF mailing list than anything I have read here over the last 20 years. 

Play the ball not the man. 

Ole

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