The initial question was about standards versus guidelines, where Angelo Strollo preferred the stronger of the two. I thought that standards were stronger, and a quick web search seems to back this up:
Univ Cape Town computer science: "standards are high in authority and limited in application, whereas design guidelines are low in authority and are more general in application"
Michaelsons:
"A standard specifies uniform uses of specific technologies or configurations... A guideline provides general guidance, and additional advice and support for policies, standards or procedures"
As for recommendations or best practices, I think it's true we need to define whether something we write is
An existing standard (provided for clarity): e.g. channel names
A proposed standard (FDSN-wide or OBS-specific): e.g. how to specify whether data is drift corrected
Recommendations (or best practices?): e.g. providing corrected data
The initial question was about standards versus guidelines, where Angelo Strollo preferred the stronger of the two. I thought that standards were stronger, and a quick web search seems to back this up:
As for recommendations or best practices, I think it's true we need to define whether something we write is
There may need to be more levels than this...