Re: Topic drift Re: An Internet Draft as reference material

[Melinda Shore]

>From: Keith Moore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: Melinda Shore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2000 7:35 AM
>Subject: Re: Topic drift Re: An Internet Draft as reference
material


> already there are too many folks who avoid issuing
> I-Ds except when required to do so because they feel that the
> publication process is too burdensome and too slow, and too
many
> people treat I-Ds as something akin to final form documents
> (as in, they need to be close to "right") rather than working
drafts.

It seems to me that that has a lot more to do with
the ascendancy of the professional standardizer,
combined with excessive scrutiny by the trade press
(aggravated by those "HEY!  WE ISSUED AN INTERNET
DRAFT!!!" press releases).

At the same time, people seem not to have the same
concerns about archiving mailing lists, which supports
what you're saying about drafts being perceived as being
weighty.

> IMHO internet-drafts ought to be about as accessible as WG
mailing
> list archives - which is to say, the stuff is out there if you
want
> to dig through it, but you have to dig.

Seems reasonable.  Indexing/retrieval aren't the same
problem as storage/retention.

Melinda