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

On Mon, Sep 08, 2003 at 03:21:20PM +0100, Rodney Tillotson wrote:
> 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.

That seems like a good idea. Many casual users of the RIPE database do
not query it directly, rather through a small number of web-based
gateways.  Would it be worth asking the owners of those gateways
to filter out the changed field now, to see what effect that has?

Cheers,
  Steve