Re: Making the Tao a web page

Nick Hilliard <nick@inex.ie> Fri, 01 June 2012 12:03 UTC

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Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:03:53 +0100
From: Nick Hilliard <nick@inex.ie>
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To: Paul Hoffman <paul.hoffman@vpnc.org>
Subject: Re: Making the Tao a web page
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On 01/06/2012 00:50, Paul Hoffman wrote:
> Thank you for that most colorful analogy. :-) What I proposed is exactly
> what we are doing now, except that the changes would appear on the web
> page instead of an Internet-Draft and, five years later, an RFC. Are you
> saying that the current system (which you have not commented on until
> now) is sclerotic (a word that I have wanted to use since I learned it
> in high school)?

It depends on what you're trying to do.  For prescriptive documents which
aren't expected to change much, the I-D system works well.  But as it's
been suggested that this document falls into a category which is expected
to change from time to time, wikis offer a lot more flexibility.  Wikipedia
editing and document management policy suggests that you can end up with
quality material.  It's a bit of a departure from the I-D system, but its
lack of formality is quite appealing for documents which are not formally
prescriptive.

Nick