On 11/23/2010 16:19, Joe Abley wrote:
On 2010-11-23, at 17:44, Doug Barton wrote:
I don't think you can mix those 2 terms in the same sentence. :)
Just so I understand the context for your comments, you're saying
that in your opinion:
1. there is no restriction to be inferred from RFC 1123 that TLD
labels be alphabetic;
Unqualified "yes" to this.
2. it is better for deployed software to break than for the IETF to
involve itself in anything resembling policy.
A qualified "yes" here. I'm saying that in _this_ situation, the IETF
does not and should not have a policy role, and should limit its
commentary to the technical. There is (rather obviously at this point)
no _technical_ reason that TLD labels should be all-alphabetic.
Therefore the IETF should not say that there is.
Furthermore I am saying that the benefits of keeping the TLD namespace
open to all technically possible values outweigh the costs. Look at what
happened in 2001. Many people said that the sky would fall when we
introduced TLD labels of more than 3 characters. The relevant players
all said "We know that there are potholes on this road, but we want to
travel it anyway." The actual experience turned out to be rougher than
some expected it to be, but we got through it. The same thing is going
to happen here, without question. But to once again summarize my points:
1. I think the benefits are worth it
2. I DO NOT think it's the IETF's role to tell people that they can't do it
3. I DO NOT even think it's ICANN's role to tell them that they should
not or cannot do it.
That said, I DO think that there IS a policy role for ICANN here, and
while I don't want to rathole that in this forum I think that gTLD
applicants for such strings should be fully advised of the problems, and
I think that there should be some extra-ordinary measures put in place
to safeguard registrants in any theoretical new TLD that falls into this
category. But once again, those are ICANNs of worms. :)
hth,
Doug
--
Nothin' ever doesn't change, but nothin' changes much.
-- OK Go
Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS.
Yours for the right price. :) http://SupersetSolutions.com/
_______________________________________________
DNSOP mailing list
DNSOP@ietf.org
https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/dnsop
