I found this while rereading the O`Malley/Peterson "TCP Externsions
Considered Harmful" paper. I consider it apropos to the 822 and smtp
working groups, as well as darkly humourous and very true.
Finally, there is a subtle problem introduced by the very freedom
provided by this approach. Specifically, being able to introduce a
new protocol often results in protocols that go far beyond the
basic needs of the situation. New protocols resemble Senate
appropriations bills; they tend to accumulate many amendments that
have nothing to do with the original problem. A good example of
this phenomena is the attempt to standardize VMTP [1] as the Inter-
net RPC protocol. While VMTP was a large protocol to begin with,
the closer it got to standardization the more features were added
until it essentially collapsed under its own weight. As we argue
below, new protocols should initially be minimal, and then evolve
as the situation dictates.