Subject: Lets all please try not to get stuck in rat-holes

From: Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 08:31:17 -0800

I'd like to ask everyone to focus on sending only those messages that 
help us move towards a better understanding of the issues, and closer to 
completing the document.

An unending back-and-forth exchange of line-by-line dissections of the 
previous message does not get us closer to completion.

I also ask that people resist the urge to always get the last word in any 
exchange of messages. This also perpetuates fruitless threads that do not 
get us closer to completion.

I wrote:
>One of the goals I believe is important is creating reliable networking 
>that doesn't fail.

Robert Elz wrote:
>There is no such thing.

I consider that we have both expressed our beliefs unambiguously. I will 
not respond to Robert's email with another line-by-line dissection 
picking out every point on which we disagree. I think Robert has made it 
clear what his views are, and I hope I have made my views clear too. 
Further tit-for-tat exchanges that only re-iterate why we (still) 
disagree do not contribute towards forward progress.

Stuart Cheshire <[email-masked]>
 * Wizard Without Portfolio, Apple Computer, Inc.
 * Chairman, IETF Zeroconf
 * www.stuartcheshire.org

---

From: Keith Moore <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:31:10 -0500

> help us move towards a better understanding of the issues, and closer
> to completing the document.
> 

Neither does repeating old and tired arguments that have been soundly
refuted before.  

Neither does misrepresenting other people's views.
 
> I also ask that people resist the urge to always get the last word in
> any exchange of messages.

Okay, but let it also be understood that when a co-chair posts several
long messages to the group that are mostly repeats of old arguments, and
specifically asks people to not respond in similar detail, that the
resulting lack of response should not be taken as an indicator that his
arguments were persuasive in the least.

Keith