>> So... why is the finished standard specificstion called a "request for 
>> comments"? This has always bothered me...
> 
> History. :-)  There are a number of phases it goes through, including 
> proposal, draft standard, recommended standard, and (I think) required 
> standard. There are also requests for comments that aren't intended to 
> ever turn into standards.

And yet, if you look up the defintion of (say) the Routing Information 
Protocol, it's defined in RFC 2453. Which makes it sound like they're 
*requesting* people to comment on a possible standard, rather than 
*defining* a finished standard.

History, I guess. Much like the way that a parcel traveling by car is a 
shipment, and a parcel travelling by ship is cargo... ;-)

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