    Network Working Group                                         S. Hartman
    Request for Comments: 4633                                           MIT
    Category: Experimental                                       August 2006

                   Experiment in Long-Term Suspensions From
              Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Mailing Lists

    Status of This Memo

       This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet
       community.  It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.
       Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
       Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

    Copyright Notice

       Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

    Abstract

       Discussion in the community has begun to question whether RFC 3683
       and RFC 3934 provide the appropriate flexibility for managing
       Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) mailing lists.  This document
       is an RFC 3933 experiment designed to allow the community to
       experiment with a broader set of tools for mailing list management
       while trying to determine what the long-term guidelines should be.

    Table of Contents

       1. Introduction ....................................................1
       2. Requirements notation ...........................................3
       3. Definition of IETF Mailing List .................................3
       4. The Experiment ..................................................4
       5. How the Experiment May Be Used (Informative) ....................4
       6. Security Considerations .........................................5
       7. Acknowledgements ................................................5
       8. References ......................................................5
          8.1. Normative References .......................................5
          8.2. Informative References .....................................5

    1.  Introduction

       As discussed in RFC 3683, the IETF needs to have rules of conduct to
       limit disruptive or abusive behavior while permitting a fair and open
       forum for the discussion of Internet standardization.  The IETF has a
       long and complicated history of rules for managing conduct on its
       mailing lists.

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       RFC 2418 [RFC2418] permitted individuals to be blocked from posting
       to a mailing list: "As a last resort and after explicit warnings, the
       Area Director, with the approval of the IESG, may request that the
       mailing list maintainer block the ability of the offending individual
       to post to the mailing list."  RFC 2418 also allowed other forms of
       mailing list control to be applied with the approval of the area
       director and Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  However,
       RFC 2418 applied only to working group mailing lists.

       The IETF discussion list charter [RFC3005] provides guidelines for
       ietf@ietf.org.  These guidelines provide more flexibility than RFC
       2418.  "The IETF Chair, the IETF Executive Director, or a sergeant-
       at-arms appointed by the Chair is empowered to restrict posting by a
       person, or of a thread, when the content is inappropriate and
       represents a pattern of abuse.  They are encouraged to take into
       account the overall nature of the postings by an individual and
       whether particular postings are an aberration or typical.  Complaints
       regarding their decisions should be referred to the IAB."  In
       particular it appears that these decisions do not follow the normal
       appeals path outlined in RFC 2026 [RFC2026].

       RFC 3683 [RFC3683] provides a procedure for banning named individuals
       from posting to an IETF mailing list for at least one year.  However
       once such a ban is put in place for one mailing list, the individuals
       responsible for other IETF mailing lists can unilaterally remove the
       posting rights of that individual.

       RFC 3934 [RFC3934] amends RFC 2418 and grants the working group chair
       the ability to suspend a member's posting rights for 30 days.
       However, it appears to remove the ability of the AD and IESG to
       approve longer suspensions or alternative procedures: "Other methods
       of mailing list control, including longer suspensions, must be
       carried out in accordance with other IETF-approved procedures."  An
       argument could be made that the amendment was not intended to remove
       the already-approved procedures in RFC 2418, although a perhaps
       stronger argument can be made that the actual textual changes have
       the effect of removing these procedures.

       The IESG has issued a statement on mailing list management [IESGLIST]
       that allows working group mailing lists to be moderated.  Under this
       procedure, specific off-topic postings could be discarded.  However,
       this procedure does not allow the posting rights of an individual to
       be suspended; it simply allows the list as a whole to be moderated.

       The IESG issued a statement on disruptive postings [IESGDISRUPT] .
       This statement applies procedures similar to RFC 3934 and to the
       statement on moderated lists to non-working group lists.

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       The result of these guidelines is that there is a large gap between
       the levels of sanction that can be applied.  An individual can be
       suspended from a working group list easily for 30 days.  However, the
       only option available to the IESG that permits a longer suspension
       for any list besides ietf@ietf.org is the ability to suspend an
       individual for an indefinite time period from one list.  This
       suspension can expand to any IETF list without community or IESG
       involvement.  This memo is an RFC 3933 [RFC3933] experiment to
       provide the IESG with the ability to create additional mechanisms to
       manage IETF mailing lists while the community decides what mailing
       list guidelines are appropriate.  In particular, this experiment
       allows the IESG to create a level of sanction between RFC 3934 and
       RFC 3683 for working group lists and to create sanctions other than
       RFC 3683 for non-working group lists.  The goal of this experiment is
       to improve the functioning of IETF mailing lists while keeping the
       process open and fair.  This experiment is successful if it gives the
       community useful input on how to design a mailing list management
       process.  It is not expected that this experiment will be adopted in
       its current form as a permanent Best Current Practice (BCP).

    2.  Requirements notation

       The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
       "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
       document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

    3.  Definition of IETF Mailing List

       This experiment applies to all IETF mailing lists, including those
       not associated with a working group.  The definition of a working
       group list is clear, but the definition of an IETF mailing list
       comprehensive enough to include all IETF mailing lists is not
       obvious.  For the purpose of this experiment, an IETF mailing list is
       defined as follows.

       An "IETF mailing list" is defined as the IETF list itself, any
       mailing list operated to further the work of a current IETF Working
       Group (WG), any mailing list created for WG use but retained for
       ongoing discussion after that WG was shut down, any mailing list
       created in support of an IETF-specified procedure (including mailing
       lists whose purpose is the discussion of registration actions), and
       any mailing list hosted on any site or system operated by the IASA or
       otherwise on behalf of the IETF.  Mailing lists listed at
       https://datatracker.ietf.org/public/nwg_list.cgi are explicitly
       included in this definition.

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    4.  The Experiment

       This experiment runs for a period of 18 months.  During the
       experiment period, the IESG MAY approve other methods of mailing list
       control besides those outlined in RFC 3683 and RFC 3934 to be used on
       a specified set of IETF mailing lists.  Such methods include but are
       not limited to suspending the posting rights of an individual beyond
       30 days on those lists.  Under such procedures the IESG may delegate
       the authority to perform longer-term suspensions of specific
       individuals on specific mailing lists.

       The procedures of this memo MUST NOT be used to suspend the posting
       rights of an individual beyond the period of the experiment.  The
       procedures of this memo MUST NOT be used to limit an individual's
       ability to read the contents of a mailing list.

       The IESG MUST inform the community in a public statement of any
       procedures for mailing list management approved under this
       experiment.  Such a statement should include the description of the
       procedure and the description of mailing lists to which it applies or
       an indication that it applies to all IETF mailing lists.  The IESG
       MUST make a public announcement of a new procedure at least 14 days
       prior to the procedure taking effect.  Although the community is
       encouraged to comment on any IESG action, community consensus is not
       required to approve such a procedure.  All currently active
       procedures under this experiment MUST be made public in an
       appropriate, easy-to-find location.

       Sanctions made under this memo may be appealed using the procedures
       outlined in [RFC2026].

    5.  How the Experiment May Be Used (Informative)

       The IESG could approve a procedure allowing it to suspend an
       individual from one or more mailing lists for a fixed period of time
       greater than 30 days.

       Also, the IESG could delegate this power.  Two types of delegation
       are envisioned.  In the first, the IESG has a procedure that allows
       it to suspend a named individual from a list and to grant the
       managers of that list the delegated authority to continue to apply
       longer suspensions if disruptive behavior continues.  In the second,
       the IESG approves a procedure that specifies a set of lists and
       allows managers of those lists to take action unilaterally after an
       initial suspension in a manner similar to RFC 3683.

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    6.  Security Considerations

       This document describes a modification to the IETF process for
       managing mailing list discussions.  It has no security
       considerations.

    7.  Acknowledgements

       I would like to thank Brian Carpenter and John Klensin for valuable
       input in drafting this experiment.

    8.  References

    8.1.  Normative References

       [RFC2026]      Bradner, S., "The Internet Standards Process --
                      Revision 3", BCP 9, RFC 2026, October 1996.

       [RFC2119]      Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                      Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

       [RFC3933]      Klensin, J. and S. Dawkins, "A Model for IETF Process
                      Experiments", BCP 93, RFC 3933, November 2004.

    8.2.  Informative References

       [IESGDISRUPT]  "IESG Statement on Disruptive Posting", URL
                      http://www.ietf.org/IESG/STATEMENTS/statement-
                      disruptive-posting.txt, February 2006.

       [IESGLIST]     "IESG guidance on the moderation of IETF Working Group
                      Mailing Lists", URL
                      http://www.ietf.org/IESG/STATEMENTS/moderated-
                      lists.txt, August 2000.

       [RFC2418]      Bradner, S., "IETF Working Group Guidelines and
                      Procedures", BCP 25, RFC 2418, September 1998.

       [RFC3005]      Harris, S., "IETF Discussion List Charter", BCP 45,
                      RFC 3005, November 2000.

       [RFC3683]      Rose, M., "A Practice for Revoking Posting Rights to
                      IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 83, RFC 3683, March 2004.

       [RFC3934]      Wasserman, M., "Updates to RFC 2418 Regarding the
                      Management of IETF Mailing Lists", BCP 94, RFC 3934,
                      October 2004.

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    Author's Address

       Sam Hartman
       Massachusetts Institute of Technology

       EMail: hartmans-ietf@mit.edu

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    Full Copyright Statement

       Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2006).

       This document is subject to the rights, licenses and restrictions
       contained in BCP 78, and except as set forth therein, the authors
       retain all their rights.

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    Acknowledgement

       Funding for the RFC Editor function is provided by the IETF
       Administrative Support Activity (IASA).

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