(Someone sent me an email off-list telling me that this reads as “damning with 
faint praise”. Not at all my intent: I wasn’t being unkind, I was being 
precise. I don’t say things I don’t believe are exactly true, and unqualified 
praise for process outcomes can feel intellectually dishonest when I have 
substantive views about how things could have gone better, despite recognizing 
that the chairs are making strong, sustained and sincere efforts.)

Nadim Kobeissi
Symbolic Software • https://symbolic.software

> On 6 May 2026, at 6:25 PM, Nadim Kobeissi <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Yes, in all honesty, one must admit that the chairs deserve some credit. 
> There is always room for improvement, but that’s a given in all cases.
> 
> Nadim Kobeissi
> Symbolic Software • https://symbolic.software
> 
>> On 6 May 2026, at 4:41 PM, Tim Hollebeek 
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks Deirdre, Joe, and Sean for all your hard work, and being willing to 
>> serve in roles that might be a strong contender for hardest chair role at 
>> IETF.
>> 
>> -Tim
>> From: John Mattsson <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2026 10:36 AM
>> To: David Benjamin <[email protected]>; Sean Turner <[email protected]>
>> Cc: TLS List <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [TLS] Re: Working Group Last Call for Use of ML-DSA in TLS 1.3
>>  
>> Agree, thanks Deirdre, Joe, and Sean for your hard work and leadership!
>> 
>> From: David Benjamin <[email protected]>
>> Date: Wednesday, 6 May 2026 at 15:20
>> To: Sean Turner <[email protected]>
>> Cc: TLS List <[email protected]>
>> Subject: [TLS] Re: Working Group Last Call for Use of ML-DSA in TLS 1.3
>> 
>> -- 
>> 
>> Thanks, Deirdre, Joe, and Sean, for all your hard work in navigating these 
>> WG discussions!
>> 
>> On Wed, May 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM Sean Turner <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> Replying to the original consensus call message.
>> 
>> RFC 2418 Section 3.3 lays out the criteria for “rough consensus”:
>> 
>>    Working groups make decisions through a "rough consensus" process.
>>    IETF consensus does not require that all participants agree although
>>    this is, of course, preferred.  In general, the dominant view of the
>>    working group shall prevail.  (However, it must be noted that
>>    "dominance" is not to be determined on the basis of volume or
>>    persistence, but rather a more general sense of agreement.) Consensus
>>    can be determined by a show of hands, humming, or any other means on
>>    which the WG agrees (by rough consensus, of course).  Note that 51%
>>    of the working group does not qualify as "rough consensus" and 99% is
>>    better than rough.  It is up to the Chair to determine if rough
>>    consensus has been reached.
>> 
>> In this case, during WGLC there was an almost 4:1 ratio for progressing this 
>> draft, which we judge fits within the numeric “more than 51% and less than 
>> 99%” range suggested by this text for “rough consensus” and represents the 
>> “dominant view of the working group”.
>> 
>> In assessing rough consensus, we also considered the nature of the 
>> objections. In reviewing the list traffic, the majority of objections 
>> related to the status of pure MLDSA versus composite MLDSA-ECC, including 
>> (1) we should not publish a pure MLDSA specification at all; (2) we should 
>> recommend composites over pure MLDSA; (3) we should publish the composite 
>> and pure MLDSA specifications concurrently. While there was substantial 
>> disagreement on these points, we believe that the discussion on-list 
>> sufficiently aired the respective points of view and that the right approach 
>> is fundamentally a judgement call based on weighing various technical 
>> factors, which each WG participant needs to make for themselves. We see no 
>> reason to believe that participants were not able to make informed 
>> judgements.
>> 
>> Conclusion: The chairs believe there is consensus to proceed with 
>> publication of this draft as an RFC with Recommended=N for those people that 
>> want to use this algorithm, and a future Standards Action will be needed to 
>> make a change to Recommended=Y, if anyone has the willingness to undergo 
>> this heated discussion again.
>> 
>> For transparency purposes, the chairs note that we received a 
>> complaint/appeal about the consensus call. The message was moderated due to 
>> a previous notice of moderation; see [1], and the complaint/appeal contains 
>> a derivative work notice. As a result, the message was not sent to the mail 
>> list and we will not process the complaint/appeal as-is. If the message is 
>> resubmitted without the notice, the message can be posted to the mail list 
>> and we will process the complaint/appeal.
>> 
>> The Chairs,
>> Deirdre, Joe, and Sean
>> 
>> [1] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/tls/no0lW8r_wIPGF1ZXWB3EaGywh9Q/ 
>> <https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/tls/no0lW8r_wIPGF1ZXWB3EaGywh9Q/___.YXAzOmRpZ2ljZXJ0OmE6bzo1MDE2ZjM5NjQ0Y2E5M2ViODdhMjQxNDFmYjMxNDFhMjo3OjUxNGE6OTkyYmQzYjEzMmY0YmM1MjY4NDg2ZTMyYmExYjhlZjNhMGE3YzA3N2QzZjRiOGE3NTc4MTk5YzY5Yjc5NTMzMzpoOlQ6Rg>
>> 
>> On Apr 28, 2026, at 16:24, Sean Turner <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi! The chairs have judged that there is consensus to progress this I-D. We 
>> will work with the authors to get a new version submitted and we will get to 
>> work on the Shepherd Write-Up.
>> 
>> The Chairs,
>> Deirdre, Joe, and Sean
>> 
>> On Apr 9, 2026, at 15:30, Sean Turner <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> 
>> This is the working group last call for Use of ML-DSA in TLS 1.3. Please 
>> review draft-ietf-tls-mldsa [1] and reply to this thread indicating if you 
>> think it is ready for publication or not. If you do not think it is ready 
>> please indicate why. This call will end on April 23, 2026.
>> 
>> REMINDER: If you have not done so recently, review the TLS WG's Mail List 
>> Procedures; see [2].
>> 
>> The Chairs,
>> Deirdre, Joe, and Sean
>> 
>> [1] https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-mldsa/ 
>> <https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-mldsa/___.YXAzOmRpZ2ljZXJ0OmE6bzo1MDE2ZjM5NjQ0Y2E5M2ViODdhMjQxNDFmYjMxNDFhMjo3OjY1NDg6NzljOWU4ZmYxZDhiMWI4ODQ0MDEwNTk2MzVhOTdmZGQ0Y2VlMTk5ZWQ3NzgzYmFmMWU0NDU1YjdhNzIzNjVjYjpoOlQ6Rg>
>> [2] https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/tls/ucdImHExlbOf4Q3BCG81gjzi2xE/ 
>> <https://url.avanan.click/v2/r01/___https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/tls/ucdImHExlbOf4Q3BCG81gjzi2xE/___.YXAzOmRpZ2ljZXJ0OmE6bzo1MDE2ZjM5NjQ0Y2E5M2ViODdhMjQxNDFmYjMxNDFhMjo3OjhlNGE6Zjc2ZTk4ZDc2MTZjZTg4NDdkNjJiNTNlOTBmMWI1ZmU0YzZmNDAwZTVmNGM4YjczNWM1YjM0YTQ4NmZjNjVlYzpoOlQ6Rg>
>> 
>> 
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