[ih] Cluster Addressing and CIDR

[David P. Reed]

At 07:34 AM 1/14/2003 -0800, Joe Touch wrote:
>Authors will cease to present partially-complete ideas. There will be 
>fewer work-in-progress drafts. There will, in summary, be less of this 
>'good or bad' research to preserve.

This claim raises two issues:

1. The assertion that "authors will cease..." unless things they write are 
deleted from institutional memory (or at least not actively preserved) is 
falsifiable by straightforward experimental evidence.  There is no need to 
claim it without proof.   It does indeed remind me of the idea that the 
POTUS and his office should be immune from sunlight in their contacts with 
lobbyists, etc. lest those lobbyists be unwilling to share their true views.

2. Shouldn't the authors be given the choice to preserve in an archival 
form their thoughts, along with all other IDs, etc. in such a way that 
makes it much less work for historians and students of design options to 
understand old proposals?