Re: broken links in W3C documents and recommendations

Ray Denenberg, Library of Congress wrote:
> 
> From: "Dan Connolly" <connolly@w3.org>
>> In fact, this disappearance of documents at those URIs was not due to
>> a clerical error on IETF’s webmaster’s part: it is IETF policy
>> currently to remove documents which have expired from the official
>> “Internet-drafts” repository.
> 
> This IETF practice has been a source of iritation to me for years.  I 
> have links to Internet Drafts in many documents and it would seem that 
> they could grasp the simple concept of a URI for the "latest version", 
> as the W3C does. I have spoken with IETF officials about this several 
> times, and the fact is, they cannot grasp this concept.  Maybe someone 
> in the W3C can explain it to them better than I can.

I think what you're missing is that this is not out of ignorance, but on 
purpose:

"Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 
and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 
time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material 
or to cite them other than as “work in progress”."

BR, Julian