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Re: Censure of Mr. Simpson

John,

        Let me add my support to Paul's censure of Bill, from the
perspective of someone who has been involved with the IPSEC WG from the
beginning, who has attended a number (though not all) of the Wg meetings,
and who reads most of the mail list traffic.  I dislike censuring in this
context, but I have to admit that Bill's actions in this WG have created a
situation that merits such action.

        Bill's interaction with people via email is almost always very rude
and intimidating.  I have been the target of some of Bill's tirades in
various contexts and have watched him "flame" many others on this and other
mailing lists.  This behavior has had a chilling effect on some people,
causing them to contribute less than they might otherwise.  The result is
detrimental to the advancement of work in any area and I think we have seen
the effects of that in this WG.  Several individuals have approached me
over the last couple of years and noted that they were deterred from
participating in mailing list exchanges becaue of the likelihood of rousing
Bill's ire.

        In another vein, Bill's work as a document editor has been a mixed
blessing.  The IETF relies on voulenteers to do the real work of standards
production and Bill's offer to write a document contributing to that work
is laudable.  However, the work of this group has suffered from very poor
documents in general and several members have cited Bill's documentation of
Photuris as an example of specification that does not facilitate
independent interoperable implementation.  Your individual experience to
the contrary, this complaint about Bill's writing still stands.  Moreover,
Bill's reluctance to make changes to documents based on direction from the
WG chairs raises serious questions as to his suitability as an editor for a
document of this sort.

        You suggest that personal animosity has no place in a technical
group such as this one, yet it is precisely Bill's personal attacks on
individuals that have caused the animosity and resulted in his censure.
Any standards activity is a social activity involving individuals with
differing technical and personal agendas.   A successful WG must integrate
these agendas to produce a documents that represent appropriate tradeoffs
arrived at via a technical and social process.  Bill's behavior has skewed
this process and this response from the WG chair is a response to this
behavior.

Steve
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