The numbered technical documents published by the IETF are called RFCs, short for “Request for Comments.” They describe Internet protocols, procedures, research, operational guidance, and other technical ideas.
The RFC series began in 1969 during the ARPANET project. Steve Crocker created the format as a way to circulate working notes without making proposals sound like unquestionable declarations. Early documents were shared among researchers, and the informal name remained even as RFCs became the principal written record of Internet technology.
Not every RFC is an Internet Standard. Some are informational, experimental, historical, or administrative; others define standards-track protocols such as TCP, IP, DNS, and HTTP. Each published RFC receives a permanent number, and later changes are normally documented in a new RFC rather than silently rewriting the old one.
The phrase “Request for Comments” is therefore both the origin of the acronym and a reminder of the IETF’s open, review-driven engineering culture. RFCs are archived and published through the RFC Editor and IETF documentation systems.