Subject: problems with I-D submissions

From: Tony Finch <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2007 19:23:16 +0100

Would it be possible for the people who process I-D submissions to provide
helpful error reports when bouncing a submission? Whenever I ask for
clarification from them they just repeat the same unhelpful error message
or close the ticket and ignore my emails.

For example, draft-fanf-smtp-quickstart-00 was bounced because I needed to
give my draft a "proper file name" - despite the fact that it used exactly
the same form as draft-fanf-smtp-rfc1845bis-00 which was published without
difficulty. It eventually transpired that they didn't think my initials
("fanf") were "related to the name of one of the authors in some way",
but rather than explaining this they repeatedly told me to re-read the
guidelines.

Another example: Owing to a lurking obsolete version of xml2rfc, I managed
to produce two versions of -quickstart-01, one with an Internet Society
copyright and one with an IETF Trust copyright. When I submitted the wrong
one it was bounced with a message telling me I hadn't included the
boilerplate. Of course I had included the boilerplate, just the wrong
version. It would have saved me a lot of time and irritation failing to
spot differences in seemingly identical documents if they had said I had
out-of-date boilerplate.

Tony.
-- 
f.a.n.finch  <[email-masked]>  http://dotat.at/
LUNDY FASTNET: WEST OR NORTHWEST BECOMING VARIABLE 2 OR 3, OCCASIONALLY 4.
SLIGHT OR MODERATE. MAINLY FAIR. MODERATE OR GOOD.

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From: "Fuller, Barbara" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 12:59:14 -0400

Hi Tony:

We recognize that there are occasionally shortcomings in the error
messages that the Secretariat sends when an Internet-Draft fails
validation... especially during the run-up to an IETF meeting when the
Secretariat processes hundreds of drafts.  However, I am pleased to
report that a solution is on the way.

An Internet-Draft Submission Tool (IDST) is currently in the final
stages of development, and will be in place for IETF 69 in Chicago.
With this tool, error reports for Internet-Drafts that fail validation
will be generated by a tool developed and maintained by the Tools Team
that is based on the popular "I-D Nits" tool.

We are looking forward to the deployment of the IDST as it will benefit
not only the community, but the Secretariat as well.

Best Regards,

Barbara Fuller
for the IETF Secretariat