On 12 Aug 2019, at 3:26 PM, Rich Kulawiec <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sun, Aug 04, 2019 at 12:12:48AM -0700, Stephen Satchell wrote: >> "The rules" have been around for years, and are codified in the RFCs >> that are widely published and available to all at zero cost. (That >> wasn't always true, as it wasn't until the DDN Protocol Handbook volumes >> were published in 1985 that the RFCs were available to everyone. I seem >> to recall there was an FTP site that provided the RFC documents before >> that, but my memory is hazy on that.) > > IIRC, the CSnet CIC provided an RFC-by-mail service in the mid to late 1980's. > It allowed anyone to request any RFC by number, e.g., sending it "rfc123" > would > result in a response containing that RFC.
Indeed - it was the "CSNET Information Server" <[email protected]>, and it not only served RFCs but also a variety of other DDN/NSF/Merit/IETF internet informational documents... With the shutdown of the CSNET Coordination and Information Center (CSNET CIC) in 1991, the email-based info-server function was transferred to the NSF Network Service Center (NNSC) <[email protected]> where it operated until of all the various Internet informational/registry/directory services were transferred into the consolidated InterNIC contract. FYI, /John
