Putting myself back in line

Doug Ewell doug at ewellic.org
Sat Mar 21 17:31:50 CET 2009


In private correspondence, I've been challenged for stating my opinion 
that adding Comments fields to the Registry to the effect that

(a) users should not use subtag X, or
(b) subtag X represents a "strange" or "disputed" grouping

is outside the authority or scope of this list.  It was pointed out to 
me that RFC 4646 says ietf-languages can add Comments fields to any 
subtag record.

Section 3.1 says, "Comments contains additional information about the 
subtag, as deemed appropriate for understanding the registry and 
implementing language tags using the subtag or tag."  This clearly does 
not exclude such "value judgment" comments as the ones discussed in 
recent weeks.

My role as IANA Co-Designated Expert for RFC 4646 is not to monitor the 
list for off-topic threads and warn posters about perceived 
off-topicness, as a WG Chair would do.  I am also not an alternate 
Reviewer, charged with making the same types of technical decisions that 
Michael is charged with making.  My role is basically to serve as a 
clerical drone, helping the Reviewer watch deadlines and putting 
together proposal forms and such.

As such, I acknowledge that I've overstepped my bounds, and I promise to 
refrain in the future from any attempts to regulate what the list should 
discuss, though I will continue to express personal opposition (no hats 
on) to proposals that I personally oppose.  Many list members will 
already know where I stand on such proposals, and in that case the 
Delete button is your friend.

--
Doug Ewell  *  Thornton, Colorado, USA  *  RFC 4645  *  UTN #14
http://www.ewellic.org
http://www1.ietf.org/html.charters/ltru-charter.html
http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages  ˆ



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