publishing working drafts; Status of the Document

On our call last week, it sounded like, while there was support for publishing Working Drafts as we are required to do, there was a concern that we be explicit about noting that decisions are still to be made and the current state of the draft is not final. I regularly try to note this in the "Status of This Document" section, but it might help Working Group participants feel more comfortable if that language is more explicit. I would propose something like the following:

> This document is a snapshot of ongoing discussions within the Tracking Protection Working Group. Text present or not present in this document does not determine consensus within the Working Group; discussions and debates are ongoing. Members of the Working Group wish to emphasize that this draft is a work in progress and not a decided outcome or guaranteed direction for future versions of this document.
> 
> This draft is substantially revised from the previous Working Draft; much non-normative text has been removed to provide clarity for the reader and many options have been condensed by the editors and participants in the group. An issue tracking system is available for recording raised, open, pending review, closed, and postponed issues regarding this document.
> 
> This document was published by the Tracking Protection Working Group as a Working Draft. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-tracking-comments@w3.org (subscribe, archives). All feedback is welcome.
> 
> Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

Comments welcome. As I tried to make clear on the call last week, we are required to publish Working Drafts, and we always do our best to make clear to all that those drafts are in progress rather than complete or consensus text.

Thanks,
Nick


For context, from October published Working Drafts:
> This document is a snapshot of live discussions within the Tracking Protection Working Group. It does not yet capture all of our work. For example, we have issues that are [PENDING REVIEW] with complete text proposals that have not yet made it into this draft. Text in blue boxes presents multiple options the group is considering. Options included in this draft should not be read as limitations on the potential outcome, but rather simply as possible options that are currently under consideration by the working group. This draft is substantially revised from the previous Working Draft. An issue tracking system is available for recording raised, open, pending review, closed, and postponed issues regarding this document.
> 
> This document was published by the Tracking Protection Working Group as a Working Draft. This document is intended to become a W3C Recommendation. If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please send them to public-tracking@w3.org (subscribe, archives). All feedback is welcome.
> 
> Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
— http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-tracking-compliance-20121002/

Received on Wednesday, 24 April 2013 06:49:30 UTC