Re: addition or subtrraction? [was Re: dropping longdesc attribute]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2007 at 10:50:09PM +0100, Philip & Le Khanh wrote:

> Since this ruling may affect more people than the one
> to whom the message was specifically addressed, it
> might be helpful if you referred the group to the
> relevant part of "standing orders" in which guidance
> on what is, and what is not, "out of order for discussion"
> may be found.

This entire discussion is, regrettably, familiar. In the WCAG working group,
where similar concerns arose, a policy for appropriate use of the mailing list
was drawn up, and the co-Chairs took an active role in reminding participants
whenever the debate strayed from this policy. These measures appear to have
worked in as much as the quality of mailing list exchanges improved, and the
number of complaints regarding impolite or otherwise inappropriate conduct
greatly declined. If I remember correctly, the policy was made available on
the working group's Web site, but I can't find it now.

It was also concluded that splitting the list into a working group list and an
interest group list, while setting stronger participation requirements for the
working group, wouldn't address this problem, as working group members would,
inevitably, be party to the interest group as well. It was also concluded that
dividing the group would discourage, rather than encourage, participation
from those who were unable to attend regular teleconferences and face to face
meetings, but whose contributions to the specification were highly valuable.

Regular surveys also helped considerably in identifying areas of disagreement,
clarifying issues and refining proposals. I note that the HTML working group
has already instituted this practice.

I hope that the HTML working group remains open to a diverse community of
participants and continues to operate, as now, in public, in order to attract
quality contributions from members of the Web community who aren't affiliated
with W3C member organizations, and who may not be able to devote time at
teleconferences or attend face to face meetings.

Received on Tuesday, 31 July 2007 05:07:13 UTC