Suspending Posting Rights

defines a practice for revoking and restoring posting rights to IETF mailing lists. The practice to revoke posting rights was invoked six times since 2006. discusses some of the issues affecting the application of the practice. specifies the procedure for suspending posting rights to all written channels of communication used for the IETF Standards Process .

The practice specified in requires an Area Director to invoke the it and the IESG to initiate a "PR-action" as a Last-Call. There may be a perception that the outcome of the Last-Call is a foregone conclusion. The practice was invoked twice over the past two years. Some of the comments on the Last-Calls were viewed as controversial. Posting rights can be restored a year after the posting rights action was revoked. The procedure to do that was never invoked. As a consequence, the revocation of posting rights could be construed as permanent.

The procedure for suspending posting rights to all written channels of communication used for the IETF Standards Process is invoked by signed petition. The petition requires at least 10 signatories with no more than two of the signatories having the same primary affiliation. The maximum suspension period is two years. The petition is evaluated by the IESG. The IESG shall publish a rationale for its decision within a period of four weeks.

This document discusses IETF procedures. It raises no security issues for the Internet.

This document does not require any IANA actions.