Submitting drafts via official channels

I've talked to a couple people about why the IETF has draft deadlines,
since we've slipped a couple times in how we meet the deadlines and what
we do about changes post-deadline. Basically the issue is fairness to
everyone.

1.  Participants need a chance to prepare. We all need about a week to
read a reasonable number of drafts to prepare properly for an IETF
meeting.

2.  There needs to be a clear understanding what version we're all
talking about. A version-number-less Web URL doesn't provide this
clarity. It's likely to result in arguments about what version something
appeared in.

3.  People who don't participate in the mailing list very closely still
ought to be able to catch up with the working group by reading drafts
before showing up in the meeting. They won't know about drafts submitted
after the deadline.

Please make a greater effort to meet the draft deadline.

We do deeply appreciate all the work that goes into drafts, and it is
hard to meet deadlines.  We also understand that the authors of the
drafts benefit from unofficial side channels like Web pages to discuss
work in progress, and that the draft authors may beneficially share
these URLs with the whole working group. However, anything discussed in
an official WG meeting ought to be submitted by the deadline.

Lisa and Jim

Received on Tuesday, 18 March 2003 14:48:12 UTC