I believe this action by Harald Alvestrand is entirely correct.
While one can never tell what someone else's actual motivations are, Mr. Flamings actions are exactly the actions of someone whose purpose is to reduce the effectiveness of the IETF. Many of his postings are inflamatory with no corresponding benefit. His "technical contributrions" contribute nothing but confusion. They are carefully crafted to look vaguely reasonable at first glance but any detailed analysis shows that they do not provide any useful solutions to any technical problems the IETF is facing and are labeled in a misleading fashion. Anyone repeatedly posting about "IPv8", etc., to the IETF list with no explanation when what they are referring to is not an IANA/IETF IP version number, etc., is causing confusion. The IETF is the most open standards organization I have ever participated in. It leans over backwards to accomodate people. It has already tolerated orders of magnitude more injurious postings from Mr. Flaming than any other standards organization I am familiar with would have allowed. The high frequency, misleading and inflamatory content, and repetativeness of Mr. Flamings postings have, in my opinion long justified action by the IETF chair. No doubt this message of mine will provoke some response implying that I'm a ninny for whining and not just ignorning Mr. Flaming's messages, just hit D, etc. Well, it is possible for an organizaion to bleed from a million mosquito bites. Certainly everone can make their own judgements on these matters. Harald Alvestrand has been selected by the IETF community for the position where he has the burden of making the judgement for the IETF list. I, for one, fully support him. Donald cc: I have left in Mr. Flaming as a cc address for the sole reason that many people filter there mail and kill all mail with him in an address field so they will not be bothered by this. From: "Jiwoong Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Message-ID: <029601c15ad6$67ec11b0$ae0a060a@porce> To: "Harald Alvestrand" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Jim Fleming" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 17:49:05 +0900 >Wheter Jim's point of view is right or wrong, part of his postings are >related to a topic > > - Discussion of IETF administrative policies > >, which is declared to be an appropriate posting in IETF Discussion List by >RFC3005. > >Some postings are professional since they are dealing with technical matters >of Internet. >Some postings are informative since they contain hyper links that are >internet-technical, while most >of them are imflammatory. > >IPv8 (or whatever) seems related to ther work of the Internet Engineering >Task Force, on the basis of the first statement of overview of >IETF(http://www.ietf.org/overview.html), saying: > >The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large open international >community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers >concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and the smooth >operation of the Internet. It is open to any interested individual. > >, without regards to the fact that the IETF 'has chosen' other alternative. > >I guess his postings are not laming IETF's constructive work and procedures >for now. >If posted opinion is right, the society will accept it. If not, will not. > >Jiwoong > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Harald Alvestrand" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: "Jim Fleming" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 4:28 PM >Subject: Public warning: Please cease inappropriate posting > >> Jim, >> >> after having reviewed the multitude of email that you have sent to the >IETF >> list over the past week, I find that it does not conform to the guidelines >> in RFC 3005 for appropriate posting to the IETF list. >> >> Your postings are unprofessional, noninformative, inflammatory, and to a >> large degree (such as dealing with "IPv8") unrelated to the work of the >> IETF. >> >> You have established a pattern of such postings; when the previous >outburst >> subsided in early August, many of us hoped that you had found reason to >> cease this inappropriate activity, but plainly, you have not. >> >> If this pattern continues, action according to RFC 3005 will be taken. >> >> Harald Tveit Alvestrand >> IETF Chair
