Smylers wrote:
... The other advantage of unique prefixes over URIs is the one you mention: they are not dereferenceable. As has been mentioned on this list, that means nobody (human or system) will attempt to reference them, either by mistake or in the hope of finding something there. This avoids confusing learners (who on seeing a URI like those you use in examples may think that content it links to is relevant) and avoids unnecessary server load. ...
That's a difference (IMHO not an advantage) compared to those URIs that are designed to be referencable. If you want non-dereferencable identifiers, just pick the right URI scheme.
... That suggests that giving users the freedom to use either URIs or any other prefixes of their choice is superior to forcing them to use URIs, surely? ...
Only if that other approach would still guarantee uniqueness, and I don't see how that work reliably.
BR, Julian
