RFC 1796 (rfc1796) - Page 2 of 4


Not All RFCs are Standards



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



RFC 1796               Not All RFCs are Standards             April 1995


   adopted as an Internet Standard, it is given the additional label
   "STD xxxx", but it keeps its RFC number and its place in the RFC
   series.

   It is important to note that the relationship of STD numbers to RFC
   numbers is not one to one.  STD numbers identify protocols, RFC
   numbers identify documents.  Sometimes more than one document is used
   to specify a Standard protocol.

   In order to further increase the publicity of the standardization
   status, the IAB proposes the following actions:

      Use the STD number, rather than just the RFC numbers, in the cross
      references between standard tracks documents,

      Utilize the "web" hypertext technology to publicize the state of
      the standardization process.

   More precisely, we propose to add to the current RFC repository an
   "html" version of the "STD-1" document, i.e., the list of Internet
   standards.  We are considering the extension of this document to also
   describes actions in progress, i.e., standards track work at the
   "proposed" or "draft" stage.

A Single Archive

   The IAB believes that the community benefitted significantly from
   having a single archival document series.  Documents are easy to find
   and to retrieve, and file servers are easy to organize.  This has
   been very important over the long term.  Experience of the past shows
   that subseries, or series of limited scope, tend to vanish from the
   network.  And, there is no evidence that alternate document schemes
   would result in less confusion.

   Moreover, we believe that the presence of additional documents does
   not actually hurt the standardization process.  The solution which we
   propose is to better publicize the "standard" status of certain
   documents, which is made relatively easy by the advent of networked
   hypertext technologies.

Rather Document Than Ignore

   The RFC series includes some documents which are informational by
   nature and other documents which describe experiences.  A problem of
   perception occurs when such a document "looks like" an official
   protocol specification.  Misguided vendors may claim conformance to
   it, and misguided clients may actually believe that they are buying
   an Internet standard.



Huitema, Postel & Crocker