A formal Internet standard is formed when an RFC goes through committee drafting and review until the final version of the RFC is ratified, at which time no further comments or changes are allowed. Other RFCs are not ratified, and instead retain an “informational” or “experimental” status. For example, the original File Transfer Protocol standard was published as RFC 114 in April of 1971. This was later replaced by RFC 765 in 1980 and finally RFC 959. So, as technology advances, RFCs are updated as well.
