Re: PWE minutes

In the minutes, the people who were at the meeting felt it was unlikely  
chairs would unliaterally redact harmful comments or block someone on a  
mailing list. In my experience I have both done, and seen other chairs do  
that - fortunately not frequently, but more than once. I think it is worth  
anticipating the possibility, and being clear that we invest chairs with  
the authority to do so in cases where it is necessary.

Note that behaviour of chairs is subject to claims that it contravenes the  
code, so this is not "carte blanche" for chairs to become to become petty  
dictators, and such authority should be exercised with thoughtfulness and  
restraint.

FWIW We should be far more proactive in talking to chairs about this. I  
never learned to do this in chair training, but I have often been backed  
up by other chairs and group members (including people in this CG), and  
unsurprisingly have also backed off and apologised for overstepping the  
boundaries of reasonable and proportional. I have likewise found myself in  
the position of feeling that a co-chair has overstepped, and imposed an  
unduly harsh restriction. With no apparent guidance resolving these  
situations is one of the most challenging aspects of chairing, and one  
where I really felt more help from W3C is important.

cheers

-- 
Charles "chaals" Nevile
PegaSys Standards Architect, ConsenSys

Received on Monday, 16 December 2019 21:51:01 UTC