Do we have an Acceptable Usage Policy fot this NANOG mailing list?
Of late this forum has become a forum for ad hominem rather than a friendly discussion of technical issues. While I may disagree with the opinions of others, I wouldn't resort to name calling or belittling.
This reminds me of the way others behaved when I entered the field some 25 years ago. Some people were very helpful and friendly. Others responded very arrogantly with the tone of "how stupid you are for asking that question."
If you're so smart, feel free to share your knowledge. It's unnecessary to belittle someone for asking a question or stating an opinion. The motivation behind this post is to serve as a reminder of the purpose of the NANOG forum. Let's return some decorum here.
Thanks for the comments, Matthew, and we do indeed have an AUP: http://www.nanog.org/aup.html In the past the AUP was enforced too harshly (by me), and we've addressed that problem by forming a new group of list-admins. Martin Hannigan is our chair, and the other members are Chris Malayter, Steve Gibbard, Sue Joiner (who has the joy of being the list-owner at Merit), and moi. There's more info about us here: http://www.nanog.org/listadmins.html We're still getting our act together about which "rules" to enforce, how to coordinate group decisions about enforcement, etc. Lately we've been sending individual messages about OT threads, personal slams, etc., in an effort to get the list back on track. Stay tuned.