Re: Last Call: Change the status of ADSP (RFC 5617) to Historic

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

On 11/21/2013 12:49 AM, Murray S. Kucherawy wrote:
> n Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Barry Leiba <[e-mail]
> <mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:
>>     2. But if we just process this status change as currently proposed,
>>     someone looking at the datatracker page for RFC 5617 would see (1)
>>     that it's Historic
...
>
> That's true, but there are other sources of RFCs that don't contain such
> information, such as http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc6376.txt and I think the
> one at rfc-editor.org <http://rfc-editor.org>. Someone grabbing the RFC
> from such sources (which could easily be seen as official) would not be
> aware of the status change or the reason for it.


These other paths to an obsolete RFC will typically either not tell the 
reader that the RFC is obsolte or will tell the reader that the RFC is 
obsolete and will not point the reader to the fact that there is an RFC 
explaining that it is obsolete.  Having an explanatory RFC provides no 
incremental benefit.  (One exception is rfc-editor.org.)

For example:


      Using Digest Authentication as a SASL Mechanism
      http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2831.txt

is obsolete, but the pointer goes to a page that says it's standards 
track.

My search for rfc2831 on google points to the above, as a first 
reference, and therefore doesn't tell me that it's obsolete.

The second reference is:

      http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2831

which /does/ indicate it's obsolete, and yes it points to the 
explanatory RFC.

Gosh, I wonder whether it would be possible for the RFC Editor pages to 
point to the datatracker page instead?  Nah, that's probably too 
outrageous a request.

So, to find:

      "Moving DIGEST-MD5 to Historic", July 2011
      http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6331

You have to either already know it exists. Or use a search tool that 
points to it.  If you are using a search tool, it can also point to the 
datatracker entry.

The IETF spent quite a lot of money on the datatracker.  We should work 
to have it be the primary search result for RFCs.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net