I've been encouraged to say this to a wider audience, so here I am. A BoF is the IETF's tool for gauging interest in a new topic and a potential working group charter. This doesn't just mean a showing of people that would track this work if it were to begin, but really the main purpose is to determine the level of commitment to do the work, which includes things like counting people willing to review and comment on documents, people willing to act as editors, potential implementers, and perhaps potential co-chairs.
When we ask for a BoF room, we need to give an indication of estimated attendance. Sometimes it's hard to make a good guess and so we underestimate, intending to keep larger rooms available for groups that need them. As a result, the BoF room is packed. But when it's packed with what have come to be known as "tourists", those people that could be counted as committed to the work can't even get into the room, which jeopardizes the creation of an otherwise viable working group. I suspect I can safely say Dave Crocker would categorize this as an unintentional denial-of-service attack on the new work. And it's certainly not friendly to the work that's trying to get started by filling a seat in a room "because it's warm." Perhaps in the future this should be mentioned to BoF attendees before the meeting really gets going. I certainly plan to do so for future BoFs that I run or at which I present. Thanks, -MSK
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