Message-Id: <199805120024.RAA08066@baygate.bayarea.net>
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 17:23:29 -0700
To: drums@cs.utk.edu
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker@brandenburg.com>
Subject: Non-standard contributions and contributors
In-Reply-To: <2FBF98FC7852CF11912A000000000001095E16CC@DINO>
Mime-Version: 1.0
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At 04:59 PM 5/11/98 -0700, Larry Osterman (Exchange) wrote:
>That's nice, but what's the point?  822bis is describing the standard.  
>
>Now there's nothing preventing pine and mutt (and Exchange, for that matter)
>from doing "the right thing", and interpreting the non standard JST as

Exactly correct, and one might even note that the idea of having a product
which goes beyond a standard is, well, kinda basic.  As in, we shouldn't
have to be teaching each other this level of product development.

That's very much NOT a criticism of Larry but, rather, our repeated,
general, group sense of obligation to pursue at length issues which are not
controversial or even in doubt.

If one person (or, gee, maybe even two or three) raise a concern and there
is a full and complete explanation (as in "the spec says the following
reasonable and correct thing") then we should consider the matter closed.
If there is no general group sense of unhappiness or feeling that something
needs to be changed, then we do not need to take up group time beating the
issue into the ground, in the hope that the one (or two or three) unhappy
people will change their mind.

Overall this is a very productive group.  As with all groups, one or
another of us is sometimes disruptive.  The right way to deal with such
non-contributions is to respond to whatever legitimate content they have --
if any -- and then drop the matter.  Quickly.  If there is not legitimate
content, that means no responses.

Why am I sending this note?  

Well, because the thread that Larry responded to went for several
iterations past its real point of resolution and this was the second such
protracted thread in the last few days.  There have been complaints about
many such extended, frustrating, non-productive threads, over the course of
this working group, and I'm thinking we need to remind ourselves how to
deal with the problem.

We deal with the problem by dropping the topic as soon as possible.

Real debates, concerning group-wide disagreement, are very easy to discern
from the monomanic lobbying of a minority.  

By all means, let's dive in, swinging, when there is a topic of group-wise
misunderstanding or disagreement.  But by all means, let's dive OUT when
there isn't.

d/

_________________________________________________________________________
Dave Crocker                Brandenburg Consulting        +1 408 246 8253
dcrocker@brandenburg.com      675 Spruce Drive        (f) +1 408 273 6464
www.brandenburg.com        Sunnyvale, CA 94086  USA