[rfc-i] citing historic internet drafts

[Julian Reschke]

Hi,

sometimes an RFC needs to (non-normatively) cite an expired internet 
draft. For instance, because

- the draft was a WG work item, but an individual took over after the WG 
abandoned that draft, or

- the draft was abandoned, but still contains useful historic 
information relevant to the RFC (such as a requirements document that 
never made it to RFC).

I hear from the RFC Editor that the current policy is:

       Non-normative references to Internet Drafts are allowed, but they
       must take the following restricted form: the author(s), the title,
       the phrase "Work in Progress", and the date; for example:

                [doe13] Doe, J., "The Deployment of IPv6",
                        Work in Progress, May 2013. -- 
<http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc-style-guide/rfc-style-manual-08.txt>

Of course that is totally misleading if the draft in fact is *not* work 
in progress, such as in the cases above.

It seems that an accurate and useful citation would be:

                [doe13] Doe, J., "The Deployment of IPv6",
                        "abandoned work", May 2013, <...URL...>.

...potentially augmented with an annotation explaining the citation 
("work on this internet draft didn't complete, but it still contains 
useful historic information, because of...").

Feedback appreciated,

Julian