Ripe change to whois

Hello.

I am including the tld-wg into this discussion so as to make sure all involved 
parties are aware of the discussion.

 Alexander Koch <akoch at sgh-net.de> writes:
 * Hello.
 * 
 * > The design of this feature was specified some time ago by Carol Orange and
 *  
 * > Wilfried Woeber (please see http://www.ripe.net/meetings/ripe/ripe-27/pres
 * /rout
 * > e/referral/) and discussed in the RIPE db-wg mailing list (please see 
 * > http://www.ripe.net/mail-archives/db-wg/19970501-19970601/threads.html)
 * 
 * Oh. Fine. Do I get it right that this was discussed and agreed on
 * more than a year ago? Argh.
 * 

Yes, indeed. We had a period where we have been late with developments. That 
period is now behind us.

 * This change breaks too many things, imnsho, and it seems again that if
 * you are not able to make it to the RIPE meetings, you have lost. A
 * special announce would have been most helpful (an explicit one, stating
 * this).
 * 

But, we did... or so I thought. We'll look into more ways of getting this 
announcements across while trying to minimize the mails sent to people who 
don't care about this.

This particular feature has been actively asked for by the ccTLD 
adninistrators and seen as a good thing by everyone I have had a chance to 
speak with. These are actually the first complaints about it we have got so 
far.

 * > As a side note I would like to stress that the RIPE Database is NOT the so
 * urce 
 * > of authoritative data for domain objects (although we are happy to provide
 *  a 
 * > repository for TLD administrators).
 * > This is UNLIKE the internic whose business is to sell names.
 * 
 * Oh. Fine. whois.nic.de *cough* barely ever working... Weak argument.
 * And If I wanted to know the data about the domain one level higher,
 * I can do so myself, I don't need to get it told to me by whois, I
 * want to know whether crab.de (bad example, it really exists) is in
 * the DB already or not.

I am sorry but I can't talk about the availability of services we don't 
operate.

I am sure you can look up domains yourself but this was actually seen as 
providing the users (specially the ones less familiar with the RIPE DB) with 
help on where to find the correct information.

It seems to me that over time people have developed a sense that the RIPE DB 
is the authoritative source of information regarding domain names in Europe.
May be this issue should be up for debate now. 

As a matter of fact the referral mechanism was seen as a way for ccTLD 
administrators to include information in the Database pointing to their own 
authoritative sources of information.

 * 
 * > The RIPE NCC is therefore acting according to users directives that were 
 * > discussed and agreed on an open way.
 * 
 * Hitchhiker's Guide, anyone? *sigh*

???

 * 
 * This was a not-so-nice change, really. Consider this a statement of
 * disagreement with the way the change took place. Ok, one more mailling
 * list to follow... Time to sell.

Will do so. As I said before, we will keep modifying and developing the RIPE 
DB software and in particular this feature if users feel that is what they 
want. We will also provide our point view.
I would like to have the input of the community.

Regards,
Joao

 * 
 * Regards,
 * Alexander Koch
 * 
 * -- 
 * SGH Internet Division, Alexander Koch, Systems Administration
 * Hannover, Germany, Phone +49 511 909198 0, Fax +49 511 391307
 *