published Internet Drafts (was Re: Ballot result: Element vs Packet)

["C. Harald Koch" <chk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In message <9711051534.AA42860@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Uri Blumenthal writes:
> 
> Ned, I take exception to this. In my NSH opinion, it is poerfectly OK to
> circulate the drafts on the list until they're ready to be submitted to
> the RFC editor (and that indeed is how several WGs do their job).

The point of Internet Drafts is to get review of a document *before* it
becomes an RFC. IDs usually go through several iterations before being
submitted to the RFC Editor. 

This *includes* review by people who are interested in a particular area,
but don't necessarily have time to wade through the WG mailing list (which
is particularly verbose and off-topic in the PGP WG).

Then there's the issue that E-Mail is not a good tool for distributing large
documents. Some people still run e-mail clients on small machines, like
palmtop computers, and don't like receiving internet-draft size messages.

Get the drafts *published* and into the I-D FTP sites, so that we have a
target to discuss, and we can get some rational discourse going.

-- 
Harald