--On Saturday, July 20, 2013 15:19 -0700 Doug Barton
<dougb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 07/20/2013 01:48 PM, Andrew Allen wrote:
>> I think IANA registration of namespaces has a lot of value.
>
> I think backfilling registrations for poached identifiers sets
> a bad/dangerous example.
Doug,
This is another of those arguments that I wish we could avoid
repeating for each individual document.
One of our oldest precedents and principles is that it is better
to have things registered than not, even when they are ugly.
Having such registrations gives us a fighting chance of avoiding
the interoperability problems associated with two different
parties accidentally using the same name for different purposes.
It also provides a centralized mechanism for mapping identifiers
onto documentation. That is both a good thing in itself and, in
some cases, provides a place to include warnings about improper
uses, nasty side-effects, and security and/or privacy problems.
The Internet is not an operating system (or even the PSTN) in
which the arbiters of taste can keep something from being
incorporated in a release or used. If someone is determined to
use a particular capability under a particular name, we can try
to talk them out of it but, if they are still determined, the
only question is whether we are better off with registration and
documentation than without them. And, generally, we are better
off with the first.
Discussions about poaching, squatting, and even stupidity or bad
taste are interesting but not generally helpful.
john