[db-wg] Should the "e-mail" attribute be mandatory for the "person" object?

Folks,

Email is the preferred communication medium when troubleshooting
internetworking problems. Time and time again, "inetnum" objects with no
valid email address cause grief. In the absence of relevant "e-mail"
attributes, desperate administrators sometimes send mail to addresses found
in "changed" and "notify" attributes. Sometimes the only option left is
resorting to telephone calls, regardless of the expenses, time differences
and language barriers often involved.

I would therefore like to suggest making the "e-mail" attribute mandatory
for the "person" object. If this isn't acceptable, then maybe at least one
of the "person" or "role" objects referred to by an "inetnum" object should
carry an "e-mail" attribute. Additionally, in order to enhance address
validity, I would like to suggest performing some kind of validation on
these "e-mail" attribute values - perhaps simple syntax checking, or maybe
even full round-trip SMTP testing, or something in between.

Your comments, please.

Thor

-- 
http://thorweb.anta.net/