[whatwg] RDFa Features

[Julian Reschke]

Smylers wrote:
> ...
> The other advantage of unique prefixes over URIs is the one you mention:
> they are not dereferenceable.  As has been mentioned on this list, that
> means nobody (human or system) will attempt to reference them, either by
> mistake or in the hope of finding something there.  This avoids
> confusing learners (who on seeing a URI like those you use in examples
> may think that content it links to is relevant) and avoids unnecessary
> server load.
> ...

That's a difference (IMHO not an advantage) compared to those URIs that 
are designed to be referencable. If you want non-dereferencable 
identifiers, just pick the right URI scheme.

> ...
> That suggests that giving users the freedom to use either URIs or any
> other prefixes of their choice is superior to forcing them to use URIs,
> surely?
> ...

Only if that other approach would still guarantee uniqueness, and I 
don't see how that work reliably.

BR, Julian