Re: Welcoming newcomers

[Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu]

On Wed, 20 Dec 2000 16:54:18 PST, Bill Manning said:
> <        I am trying to decide the extent to which I wish to become involved
> <in the <specific> area. So far I have had the area director hiss at me when I
> <stated my company name at the <WG> meeting and been told that certain
> <solutions could not exist because 'so many clever people have already
> <considered the problem'.

Bill:  Could you clarify 2 things, if you know the answers to either?

a) Was the AD hissing because the newcomer's company has made a well-financed
but technically broken attempt to be an 800-pound gorilla in the <WG> area?
(No need to name names - there's ENOUGH dominant companies that have done
stupid things to go around).  I could certainly see an AD hissing if a newcomer
was perceived as having been sent by a company to perpetrate more foolishness
upon the networking community.  It wouldn't JUSTIFY it, but AD's are
human too. ;)

b) Was the "certain solution" one of the things that we've already beaten
into the ground, *know* is a bad idea, but it keeps popping up again anyhow?
Again, no need to name names - there's ENOUGH bad ideas that keep resurfacing.
I'm sure *everybody* has their favorite "Oh no, not THAT idea again!" topic
that comes up every 9-18 months on the IETF list. ;)

				Valdis Kletnieks
				Operating Systems Analyst
				Virginia Tech