On Nov 20, 2013, at 12:34 PM, Dave Crocker <dhc@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Saying "aside from the time spent" essentially marginalizes the significant effort of producing and publishing a write-up -- involving a range of volunteers and IETF staff -- as if it were a free resource, which of course it isn't. IETF participant effort is not free, but neither is it fungible. So when someone takes an interest and decides to work on something, it's not necessarily taking away from work they would otherwise be doing. That said, I agree that if it is taking away from that work, it may not be worth doing. Bear in mind though that the explanatory doc could be a survey that is submitted to the ISE, so it need not consume as much time as a standard with working group and IETF consensus would.