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Re: [isdf] Re: www.internetforce.org

2004-01-13 09:24:18

Thank you. This does answer the question, and is a good example of how to 
approach questions in a societal forum like ISDF where even rhetorical 
questions may hide a cry for information.  Once again, thank you.
w

 On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, John C 
Klensin wrote: > --On Thursday, 08 January, 2004 12:50 -0600 Wawa Ngenge 
<ngenge(_at_)confucius(_dot_)gnacademy(_dot_)org> wrote:
On Mon, 5 Jan 2004, Mark Smith wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jan 2004 07:53:04 -0500
Because that is not how they are updated.
The RFC faq would a place to seek your ansers.
The original question is : "Why do they not operate that way",
if they are  indeed REQUESTS?
Hi.
A better answer would have been "the term 'request for comment' 
is historical, dating from a time when the preferred way to make 
a formal comment on a document involved writing another 
document, which then was numbered into the series".  That 
mechanism is still available, although usually very slow.  But 
documents that become RFCs are now first posted as Internet 
Drafts (see http://www.ietf.org/ID); comments on those are both 
solicited and, usually, handled very quickly.

Today, the RFC Series, despite retention of the original name 
and numbering series, acts as a permanent, archival, repository 
of information, decisions taken, and standards published.  As 
such, documents in the series are subjected to review and 
editing processes (which differ somewhat depending on the type 
of document and are appropriate for conventional references from 
conventional documents.  Running conversations, logs of 
comments, etc., are not well suited for that archival and 
reference role, regardless of their other advantages and 
disadvantages.

regards,