John, The way I understand it, an RFC is only historic(al) if the technology it defines is no longer in use. An obsolete RFC means the technology is still being used, but some part of the specification (obsolete RFC) has been updated. An obsolete RFC can still be a standard as the RFC that obsoletes it may not change the protocol at all. One example of this is RFC 3912 which is the RFC that obsoletes your example (RFC 954) - read 3192's abstract for more detail. This is of course only my understanding. Best regards, Nick Staff -----Original Message----- From: ietf-bounces@xxxxxxxx [mailto:ietf-bounces@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of john.loughney@xxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2005 11:54 PM To: newtrk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ietf@xxxxxxxx Subject: Question about Obsoleted vs. Historic Hi, I was wondering if someone could help me out on this one. I was doing a bit of analysis on the current RFC list, and noticed that some Draft Standard documents are obsoleted. For example: 954 NICNAME/WHOIS. K. Harrenstien, M.K. Stahl, E.J. Feinler. Oct-01-1985. (Format: TXT=7397 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC0812) (Obsoleted by RFC3912) (Status: DRAFT STANDARD) This really made me scratch my head. One would imagine if a protocol is obsoleted by another, it would not be listed as a Draft Standard any longer. What is the reason for continuing to list something obsolete as a Draft Standard? John _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf