Telling people not to do some set of things is not the same as telling them what they should do. And yes it is complicated.
One of the principles that makes the Internet different is the notion of permissionless innovation. That is, I don't need permission from IETF or OSI or anyone to deploy a new service or application. I just ship the code.
Which is why I worded my statement the way I did. Occasionally, the IETF has come out and said that doing certain things is a bad idea. And that is sometimes necessary. Particularly when IETF has in the past recommended doing the thing now found to be problematic.
The problem of course is that a lot of features, services, etc. end up being gated by assignment of code points. And the risk in assignment of a code points is that it can be seen by some as an endorsement. That is why 'vannity crypto' is such a problem.
On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 9:51 PM Mark Nottingham <mnot@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://rfc.fyi/?search=harmful
I note that all but two are Informational (for whatever that's worth).
> On 10 Dec 2020, at 1:32 pm, Lloyd W <lloyd.wood=40yahoo.co.uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> "The IETF has never been in the business of telling people what they can use"
>
> there are a large number of RFCs with "Considered harmful" in the title.
>
> Lloyd Wood
> lloyd.wood@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>> On 4 Dec 2020, at 05:03, Phillip Hallam-Baker <phill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> The IETF has never been in the business of telling people what they can use
--
Mark Nottingham https://www.mnot.net/
