Editing Consensus decision-making (section)

===IETF rough consensus model===
In the [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] (IETF), decisions are assumed to be taken by ''[[rough consensus]]''.<ref>{{Cite IETF|last=Bradner|first=Scott|date=1998|title=IETF Working Group Guidelines and Procedures|rfc=2418|access-date=26 August 2020|publisher=[[Internet Engineering Task Force|IETF]] }}</ref> The IETF has studiously refrained from defining a mechanical method for verifying such consensus, apparently in the belief that any such codification leads to attempts to "[[game the system]]." Instead, a [[IETF Working Group|working group]] (WG) chair or [[Birds of a Feather (computing)|BoF]] chair is supposed to articulate the "sense of the group."

One tradition in support of rough consensus is the tradition of humming rather than (countable) hand-raising; this allows a group to quickly discern the prevalence of dissent, without making it easy to slip into [[majority rule]].<ref>{{Cite IETF |title=The Tao of IETF: A novice's guide to the Internet Engineering Task Force |rfc=4677 |fyi=17 |last1=Hoffman |first1=P. |authorlink1=Paul Hoffman (engineer) |last2=Harris |first2=S. |date=September 2006 |publisher=[[Internet Engineering Task Force|IETF]] }}</ref>

Much of the business of the IETF is carried out on [[mailing list]]s, where all parties can speak their views at all times.