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Network Working Group W. Kantrowitz RFC: 459 LL-TX-2 NIC: 14379 February 26, 1973

Network Questionnaires

In recent times, a steady stream of questionnaires has been arriving from the network community. Each questionnaire creates an additional distraction from more useful work and raises the general annoyance level somewhat. The arrival of the seven-page NCP questionnaire (RFC 460) has pushed the annoyance level over the top.

We are wondering if any of the questionnaire polluters has given any thought to the fact that it takes time to fill out these questionnaires especially if one wants to do a conscientious job and provide reasonable answers to questions which are frequently only partially applicable.

It seems rather presumptuous for RFC 460 to provide a lengthy questionnaire without any explanation as to the motivation for it and then request a response in two weeks. And tantalize us yet with the promise of additional questionnaires in the future.

Sites which have the luxury of people who have nothing better to do than create questionnaires and other meta-work should realize that there are some sites that operate with limited personnel resources, do have something better to do, and will get nothing done if they are continually swamped with all kinds of meta-work.

This material has not been reviewed for public release and is intended only for use with the ARPA network. It should not be quoted or cited in any publication not related to the ARPA network.

[ This RFC was put into machine readable form for entry ] [ into the online RFC archives by Alex McKenzie with ] [ support from GTE, formerly BBN Corp. 9/99 ]

Kantrowitz [Page 1]