[db-wg] abuse-c

Realistically speaking it is not very likely that stupid tools will
change very soon.  Nonetheless I like the proposal of a simple
'abuse-mailbox' attribute containing an e-mail address and nothing else.
This would open the possibility to ask tool-writers not to spam all the
other e-mail addresses in the inet*num objects and any object remotely
related to them.  In other words: we provide specific information where
to send such messages, so it is a Bad Idea(TM) to send it anywhere
else. 

I do not think we should make this attribute mandatory however, as
introducing mandatory attributes is difficult in existing objects that
have significant deployment.  Furthermore making an attribute mandatory
tends to decrease its meaningfulness somewhat as people fill in
'anything' if they do not have meaningful data to provide.
Preventing general spam from stupid tools and getting abuse e-mail
concentrated in one mailbox should be enough motivation for deployment. 

I am also in favour of adding the 'abuse-mailbox' attribute to the
maintainer object in order to provide a quick way for deployment that
does not involve changing a lot of inet*num objects.  The referencing
recommendation should be: "If the inet*num object for the address
concerned has an 'abuse-mailbox', use this address *only* for sending 
abuse complaints.  If such an attribute is not present, check the
maintainer object for an 'abuse-mailbox' attribute and use this address
*only* for sending abuse complaints."

Daniel

"When doing a simple software project, always assume others will take
it furter, a lot further!"