[db-wg] Re: "changed:" attribute

At 08/09/2003 10:56 +0200, Engin Gunduz wrote:

[Ulrich Kiermayr]:
> > Related to this Point from an experience I had this week: In this 
> > context it would also be worth rethinking the behaviour of changed:

Engin says two separate things.

1.
> ... change the "changed:" attribute, ...

This first one is about the internal characteristics of "changed:"; how
it is generated, formatted, authenticated and perhaps stored.

2.
> Secondly, the query users do not really know what "changed:" attribute
> means. ... most users and automated tools pick anything that resembles
> an email address in the whois query result and send them abuse
> complaints. 

The question here is about external presentation; who sees "changed:",
what they are looking for when they see it, what they think it means
and what they do with it.


The anti-spam WG is preparing a broad proposal, but one early thought
is to provide different database views for the different classes of
user. Casual users looking for contact information in the default
output are an important class, probably not the most well-informed or
patient, and it may be worth suppressing "changed:" in the view they
get. This applies whatever decisions we make about the internal
behaviour or the way LIRs will use the attribute.

Rodney Tillotson, JANET-CERT
+44 1235 822 255.