EIPs, or Ethereum Improvement Proposals, are defined by EIP 1 as “a design document providing information to the Ethereum community, or describing a new feature for Ethereum or its processes or environment.”
EIP 1 instructs authors to “provide a concise technical specification of the feature and a rationale for the feature” and states that they are “responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.” This topic is designed to help with this goal.
EIP 1 also counsels potential authors as follows: “Before you begin writing a formal EIP, you should vet your idea.” These ideas can be crude and informal at the outset. Camps in this topic can provide a place to shepherd a potential EIP through its entire life cycle, from inception to rough draft to finalization and implementation. By building consensus along the way, differing opinions can be heard and tracked, so concerns can be resolved.