This seems to fall into the common trap of misunderstanding the causality in standardising legacy features of the web platform. The post says:<p>&gt; The [WHATWG] spec says so because browsers have implemented the spec.<p>But that&#x27;s exactly wrong. The WHATWG spec is based on the observed behaviour of browsers. By documenting what existing browsers do, and scoping out who is prepared to change their implementation when there are differences, it tries to specify a behaviour that is either already implemented or able to be implemented with as few changes as possible. It is <i>possible</i> to specify behaviour that is stricter than any current implementation, but the burden of proof for doing so is non-trivial; you have to demonstrate, to the satisfaction of all involved parties, that the proposed change will not break enough web content to cause a compatibility problem. Doing that is non-trivial, but possible if you are sufficiently motivated.<p>The complaint that the WHATWG spec is written by a closed group also seems like a misunderstanding. Compared to pay-to-play organisatons like the W3C, or pay-to-meet organisations like IETF, there is no concept of formal membership, or need to pay to get your voice heard. There&#x27;s a mailing list, an open GitHub repository and an IRC channel. Anyone, especially prospective implementors of the spec, is welcome to participate in those forums, and they will have the same privileges as any other contributor. I imagine that for URL in particular, contributions from the CURL comminity would be most welcome.