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Internet Drafts

Before a document becomes an RFC, it starts out as an Internet Draft (often called "IDs" or "I-Ds"). IDs are rough drafts, and are sometimes created for no other benefit than to tell the Internet world what the author is thinking. On the other hand, there is often very good information in some IDs, particularly those that cover revisions to current standards.

It should be emphasized here that it is unwise to make any programming decisions based on information in Internet Drafts. Most IDs go through many rounds of revisions, and some rounds make wholesale changes in the protocols described in a draft. Further, many IDs are simply abandoned after discussion reveals major flaws in the reasoning that lead to the draft.


In the past, IMC maintained a list of Internet Drafts that pertained to Internet mail. We no longer maintain such a list, although we keep an informal list of mail-related RFCs up-to-date.