On 5/17/06, Paul Hoffman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This document describes an extension to an existing standards-track document: it should either be on standards track or it should not be an RFC.
Where is that written down? Didn't Julian just get some WebDAV extensions approved as Experimental? You seem to be saying IETF participants don't get to have anything other than a black/white opinion on the readiness of this document. I disagree, and I also think it's kind of inappropriate for you to be managing discussion in this way. After all, it's not a WG document, is it? I would have said this should go Experimental, but it's not clear that the author is willing to change the document in any meaningful way, so there's no experiment to conduct. Informational and Experimental RFCs The role of Informational RFCs is often debated in the IETF. Many people like having them, particularly for specifications that were created outside the IETF but are referenced by IETF documents. They are also useful for specifications that are the precursors for work being done by IETF Working Groups. On the other hand, some people refer to Informational RFCs as "standards" even though the RFCs are not standards, usually to fool the gullible public about something that the person is selling or supporting. When this happens, the debate about Informational RFCs is renewed. Experimental RFCs are for specifications that may be interesting, but for which it is unclear if there will be much interest in implementing them, or whether they will work once deployed. That is, a specification might solve a problem, but if it is not clear that many people think that the problem is important, or think that they will bother fixing the problem with the specification, the specification might be labeled an Experimental RFC. If, later, the specification becomes popular (or proves that it works well), it can be re-issued as a standards-track RFC. Experimental RFCs are also used to get people to experiment with a technology that looks like it might be standards track material, but for which there are still unanswered questions. -- Robert Sayre "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."
