[db-wg] Re: abuse-c: proposal

On 7 Feb 2004, at 04:43, Randy Bush wrote (privately):

> how little can we do
> and get the result

I think a truly minimalist approach would be to add the abuse-mailbox:
attribute, with an e-mail address on RHS and an optional hint string
on far-RHS beyond the '#', to the existing person, role, and mntner
objects only.

This would provide a means for operators/sysadmins to advertise 
'effectively'.
They are not doing this at present because IRT is (perceived as) too 
complex,
and 'remarks:' is easier.

MarcoH's statistics (as I recall) show on the order of 900k objects, 
100k
with remarks pointing to abuse contacts, and about 1k with IRT's set up.

Adding one optional attribute to the three objects mentioned has the 
following
advantages:

	the new attribute name signals its specific semantics;
	no new object is required;
	no new cross-checking between objects is required;
	no new RHS systax-checking is required (syntax is as for 'e-mail:');
	deployment is optional;
	deployment scales per-contact, not per-network;
	the motivation (whatever it is) for overloading the 'remarks:' 
attribute
		is undermined; and
	use of the new attribute is simple, both for operators and for tool 
writers.

The chief disadvantage is that the motivation for using IRT is 
undermined.
Since IRT uptake is about 0.1%, and going nowhere fast, this is 
something I
can live with.

Niall O'Reilly