⚙️ Techpublished 2w ago
Internet standards are called "Requests for Comments" because graduate students were shy
When graduate student Steve Crocker drafted the very first technical specification for ARPANET in April 1969, he worried about overstepping his authority. The working group had no official standing, and Crocker feared senior researchers would dismiss their work as arrogant. To sound humble, he titled the document "Request for Comments." The self-effacing label stuck, becoming the permanent designation for every architectural standard that governs the global internet today.
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