Re: The rights of email senders and IETF rough consensus

[Bob Braden <braden at ISI.EDU>]

clean
  *> 
  *> Dave Crocker wrote:
  *> >> IETF should not make it more difficult for the Internet to adapt to
  *> >> changing conditions by standardizing protocols that only work in a
  *> >> narrow set of conditions - even when those conditions are reflected
  *> >> in some providers' current contracts or policies.
  *> > 
  *> > 
  *> > Like ARP?
  *> 
  *> I wasn't around when the ARP decision was made, so I don't know how
  *> widely it was realized at the time that the approach was shortsighted. 
  *> we cannot, of course, have perfect foresight, so it will always be 
  *> possible to find examples of poor decisions made long ago.  however the 
  *> lack of perfect foresight doesn't mean we should make our present 
  *> decisions blindly.

This is a strange discussion.  Broadcast networks are an important
class of link layer technologies, and I would say that by any measure
ARP was a huge technical success.  It may well have been responsible
for the great popularity of Ethernet and its followons.  ARP also
established an important architectural technique.  I don't understand
the suggestion that it was "shortsighted".

Bob Braden

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