encouraging a report is fine retracting the code points seems to add more confusion than it is worth unless the code space is very tight and I see no reason to obsolete the experimental rfc or move it to historic status unless the report is that some bad thing happens when you try it out - updating the old rfc is fine and I agree with Elliot about the nature of research - it is very common to not reach a conclusion that something is bad (as in bad for the net) - and that is the only case where I think that an experiment should be flagged as a don't go there situation Scott On Apr 19, 2012, at 4:31 PM, Adrian Farrel wrote: > All, > > The IESG has been discussing how to tidy up after Experimental RFCs. > > We have developed the following draft IESG statement. This does not > represent a change in process, and continues to value Experimental RFCs > as an important part of the IETF process. It does, however, seek to > encourage documentation of the conclusion of experiments. > > We are aware that there may be other discussion points around > Experimental RFCs, and we would like to discuss these, but we also > believe that there is merit in making small, incremental improvements. > > The IESG would welcome your thoughts on this draft before they approve > the final text on April 26th. > > Thanks, > Adrian > > ============= > > IESG Statement on Conclusion of IETF Experiments > > > Experiments are an established and valuable part of the IETF process. > A number of core Internet protocols were first published as Experimental > RFCs while the community gathered experience and carefully investigated > the consequences of deploying new mechanisms within the Internet. > > In the case where an experiment leads on to the development of a > Standards Track RFC documenting a protocol, the new RFC obsoletes the > old Experimental RFC and there is a clear conclusion to the experiment. > > However, many experiments do not lead to the development of Standards > Track RFCs. Instead, the work may be abandoned through lack of interest > or because important lessons have been learned. > > It is currently hard to distinguish between an experiment that is still > being investigated, and an old experiment that has ceased to be of > interest to the community. In both cases an Experimental RFC exists in > the repository and newcomers might easily be misled into thinking that > it would be helpful to conduct more research into an abandoned > experiment. > > In view of this, the original proponents of experiments (that is, > authors of Experimental RFCs, and Working Groups that requested the > publication of Experimental RFCs) are strongly encouraged to document > the termination of experiments that do not result in subsequent > Standards Track work by publishing an Informational RFC that: > > - very briefly describes the results of the experiment > > - obsoletes the Experimental RFC > > - if appropriate, deprecate any IANA code points allocated for the > experiment > > - may request that the Experimental RFC is moved to Historic status. > > If there is no energy in the community for the producing such an > Informational RFC, if the authors have moved on to other things, or if > the Working Group has been closed down, Area Directors should author or > seek volunteers to author such an Informational RFC. >