April 17, 2026
The internet went full meow
IETF draft-meow-mrrp-00
A cat-language internet draft drops; confusion, nostalgia, and security panic ensue
TLDR: Someone submitted a cat‑speak “meow” protocol as an IETF draft, which is just a temporary work‑in‑progress document. Comments split between jokes and alarm: some say it proves the bar is too low, while others warn it could be abused like a cat‑echo spam storm, sparking big‑time drama.
The folks who write the internet’s rulebook just got a draft that’s basically written in cat: lots of “meow,” a little “mrrp,” and a whole lot of side‑eye from readers. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) publishes early, temporary “work‑in‑progress” docs all the time—but this one clawed its way into the spotlight. One commenter opened with the mood of the room: “Why?!” Others joked the author was just hungry. Then came the spicy take that this stunt “shows how low the bar is”, tying it to last week’s “IPv8” drama thread and sparking a fight over whether open processes invite creativity—or chaos.
It wasn’t all memes. A security‑minded voice warned the “meow protocol” looks trivially exploitable, comparing it to calling one cat and suddenly every cat on the block yowls back—aka a network echo storm. Meanwhile, internet archaeologists dug up the author’s gloriously retro site, matdoes.dev, complete with sparkly star GIFs and a hit counter, which split the crowd between cute nostalgia and “this isn’t serious.”
To be clear, drafts aren’t official standards and can disappear fast. But the comment section turned it into a referendum: harmless art prank vs. embarrassing waste of time vs. teachable moment on how the internet sausage gets made. Verdict? The meows were funny, the claws were out, and the drama was loud enough to wake the neighborhood.
Key Points
- •The document is an IETF Internet-Draft and is valid for up to six months, expiring on 18 October 2026.
- •It states Internet-Drafts are working documents that may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted at any time and should be cited only as “work in progress.”
- •The draft is submitted under BCP 78 and BCP 79 and is subject to the IETF Trust’s Legal Provisions.
- •Code components from the document must include the Revised BSD License text and are provided without warranty under that license.
- •The body primarily lists identifiers and variants such as “MEOW,” “MEOW MRRP,” “NYA,” “MRAOW,” “MIAOW,” “PURR,” and “-X” variants (e.g., “MEOW-X”).