From: Dave Crocker <[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, August 5, 2023 at 9:49 AM
To: Jesse Thompson <[email protected]>, Neil <[email protected]>
Cc: Todd Herr <[email protected]>, IETF DMARC WG <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [dmarc-ietf] Idle Musings - Why Is It DMARC and not DMARD?

> The language used for DMARC has always been problematic. "Policy"
> implies control, but the domain owner has no control over the receiving
> platform.  Quarantine and Reject declare control that also does not exist.
Suppose you set a policy of p=reject that’s still your policy even if receivers 
aren’t obligated to honor your policy. But it’s a policy nonetheless. It’s not 
required that a policy be followed for it to be policy. That aside, there’s 
unlikely to be another word that works better than’s worth any confusion or 
disruption that could be caused by changing the jargon.

Also, we understand who our audiences are in reality. Sometimes it’ll be a 
harried admin skimming the RFC, and others will take the time to do a deep 
dive. Even the harried admin scanning today might want to dive deep when he has 
more time. So out of respect for those who want to get things done and solve 
problems quickly and those who wish to grok the new DMARC spec, I think the 
optimal solution would be to follow E.B. White, making every word count, having 
empathy for the reader, and avoiding distractions that could bog the stressed 
reader down.

Then there would be well-organized appendixes that satisfy the reader in a 
lower stress state who wants to spend some time to grok.
So I get straight to the point, postpone in-depth exploration a few pages, 
putting enough material in well-organized appendices to satisfy the desire of 
many technical people who don’t feel comfortable until they grok something. 
That can be me on the same day easily.
Thanks.
Neil


> Governance seems like the best word to me, since Governance is what
> Reporting has provided to ADs in Monitoring Mode, but I do not want to
> say DMARG out loud either :-)

Here, too, the domain owner does not govern the platform receiver.

d/

--
Dave Crocker
[email protected]
mast:@[email protected]
408.329.0791

Volunteer, Silicon Valley Chapter
Information & Planning Coordinator
American Red Cross
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