[Rfced-future] Historical Properties

[Brian E Carpenter <[e-mail]>]

At the risk of finding a lot of messages in my inbox tomorrow,
here's a proposed shorter alternative to Mike's "RFC Principles".
Obviously a different slant, and I'm sure Peter will spot
some overlaps with existing text:

# Historical Properties of the RFC Editor Series

The following describes some historical properties of
the RFC Series. Proposals to modify any of these properties
should not be taken forward without a strong community consensus
including not only active RSWG/RSAB members but also the user
community of each RFC stream.

## Availability

The RFC series documents have been freely available digitally for more
than 35 years, with no fee for access. The IETF Trust [legal provisions]
(https://trustee.ietf.org/documents/trust-legal-provisions/) apply.

## Accessibility

There is a general goal to make the RFC series documents as accessible
as possible to communities that have special needs, e.g., for those
with impaired sight.

## Publication Language

The publication language of the series is English. Although
translations of RFCs into other languages are welcomed, the
English version is normative.

## Diversity of Interests

In addition to Internet standards, the RFC series has published
procedural and informational documents, thought experiments, speculative
ideas, research papers, histories, humor [RFC1149, RFC2549], and even
eulogies [RFC2468].  Various communities have contributed to the rich history
of the RFC series, and to its somewhat human-centric take on networking.
This why several streams of RFCs exist in addition to the IETF stream,
and why the RFC "brand" is wider than the IETF. This is also why the
series does not have a "house style" and allows for individual expression.

## Document Quality

Nevertheless, since RFCs need to be archived indefinitely and must
be of use to a widespread international community, quality, readability
and accuracy are key to the success of the RFC Series. It is
understood that sometimes this stands in the way of rapid publication.

    Brian C