[ih] Confusion in the RFCs

[Dave Crocker]

On 9/5/2025 5:05 AM, Steve Crocker via Internet-history wrote:
> but it was not intended to exclude completed pieces of work.


In the early 1970s, email formats were highly variable.  Efforts, such 
as RFC 561, to get them to be consistent did not gain traction.

So when we did RFC 733, in 1977, we wanted to communicate a clear and 
strong intent to get everyone on the same format page.

We petitioned ARPA (Steve Walker) to have the document's title 
communicate this and he agreed.

As I recall, the assertive nature of the title, 'Standard for the format 
of ARPA network text message' got a significant amount of push-back, 
when the RFC was published.


d/

-- 
Dave Crocker

Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
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