Re: User Unknown (WAS: really amazon?)

[John Curran <jcurran () istaff org>]

On 12 Aug 2019, at 3:26 PM, Rich Kulawiec <rsk () gsp org> 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" <info-server () sh cs net>, 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) <info-server () nnsc nsf net> where it operated until of all 
the various
Internet informational/registry/directory services were transferred into the consolidated InterNIC contract. 

FYI,
/John