Hello Bob,
The intent is that when good & useful information and ideas are
published in Internet Drafts, they should become Informational RFCs if
they merit preservation and referencing.
But the problem is that they don't, and there are too many
cracks to fall through.
- A draft often needs a LOT of work before it could become
Informational. This is especially true since the IESG wants
to be somewhat careful about what gets out as an RFC.
- Sometimes drafts have some BAD ideas mixed in with the
GOOD ideas.
- Sometimes drafts are _partially_ superseded by later
work (note this is almost the same as the last point).
- Sometimes drafts are just put out there to stimulate
thought/controversy/further work. The authors may have
no interest in doing any more work on it after that.
Not that I myself would ever do such a thing.
- As you point out, people do move on, especially in the IETF.
If someone _wants_ to provide proper attribution in order
to live up to honorable objectives of intellectual honesty,
then it would be convenient for them to be able to cite
the original work (i.e., the Internet Draft). Clearly, it
is not the IETF's _responsibility_ to provide this archival
service. We _may_ wish to accept a _new_ responsibility,
or maybe not.
I suggest that ISOC consider creation of such a service.
Regards,
Charlie P.
PS. 40 Gbytes < $200.