My point was: as currently a NRS link can point to version that doesn’t exist, then a NRS link could also point to a path that doesn’t exist. This is coherent because the aim is to be able to create later a new version of the file container with the missing path.
The value I see is the ability to uncover a secret in the future at an address known in advance (but not a precise use case).
But now, I find this incompatible with Perpetual Web because the appearance or even the displayed content of a safe site could change without changing its version by linking some of its external resources to non existing paths and providing them later.
So I change my mind and I propose to forbid the creation of a NRS link that points to a version that doesn’t exist and/or a path that doesn’t exist.
As a side effect, this will also avoid a lot of user errors because most of the time broken links are simple mistakes.
Still, that doesn’t quiet force the point, as surely the evidence would be there clearly enough, with the date stamping on the path’s endpoint when the become material. So long as the endpoint datestamp is considered and not the pointer datestamp, then it’ll be clear what has occured for the Perpetual web to communicate that.
It is the problem of permanence of a site version.
Suppose that yesterday you navigated to a safe site at version 12 and today you go back to the same site still at version 12. If what you see is not the same as yesterday, then the perpetual web principle has been broken.
And you can’t even go back to what you saw yesterday because if you navigate to version 11 you will get an older version of the site.
Above was talk of broken links not change of content?
I suppose there could be includes that add in content that was not there but the dating of the endpoints surely covers it off, if ever there was a query of what occurred.
My point is simply that it seems extra work for little apparent benefit. Version 12 is that element that points out to other content, that the other content became manifest, changes the appearance of v12 but not what v12 is. Matter of perspective? If you are trying to control the sum of what v12 presents, then perhaps you need to lock down every element that is contributor.