The nature and even existence of file extensions is platform-dependent (some obscure platforms don't even have them, remember) -- in other systems they're only conventional (UNIX and its ilk), while in still others they have definite semantics and in some cases specific limits on length or character content (Windows, etc.).
Since the maintainers have asked that you use ".yaml", that's as close to an "official" ruling as you can get, but the habit of 8.3 is hard to get out of (and, appallingly, still occasionally relevant in 2013).
