Re: An Internet Draft as reference material

[Keith Moore]

> The point is that I-Ds aren't supposed to be formal documents either.
> They're just electronic scribble on scap paper found lying around, and
> generally intended to be discarded.   From time to time, some of that
> looks to be worth keeping - and then it can be copied to a more permanent
> archive, but we are still going to need the scratch pad.

there's even more to it than that.

as long as internet-drafts don't stay around forever, there's
less pressure on IETF to exercise editorial control over them.  
that means that there's a low overhead associated with 
getting I-Ds published and getting the ideas out for review.
(some claim that it's already too high )
 
but if/when they do get archived, IETF will sooner or later
be expected (to the point of having a legal obligation)
to exercise control over those documents.

Keith