I have been following the VCard discussion with interest and wanted to add
my perspective as a developer. I am not a VCard (or metadata) expert so
can't comment on the overview of VCard representations as such.
As a developer, the cases for a present but empty VCard element or for a
VCard element not being present at all are basically equivalent and okay
either way (although my personal preference is for not present at all).
However, completing fields which are empty (whether in a VCard or anywhere
else) with an arbitrary text construct of 'none' (or 'empty' or 'unused' or
'null') is less than ideal (and extends conceptually to the population of
every possible empty element in an xml instance with a similar arbitrary
value).
There may well be reasons that I am unaware of why this is recommended in
VCard and I must say again that this is not the view of a metadata expert so
feel free to put me straight if I have missed a vital point.
Rob
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