[db-wg] Proposal to remove "referral-by" attribute in "mntner" object or make it optional

Dear Piotr

As this has never been agreed can we determine what is considered to be 
'announced well in advance'? Would you consider this condition satisfied if:

-it is announced on the DB WG mailing list when consensus for a change 
has been reached
-a reminder is sent to the DB WG mailing list after 1 month
-a final reminder is sent to the DB WG mailing list 1 week before the 
(minimum) 2 month boundary when the change is completed
-during this time, if the change can be made in a non fatalistic way, it 
may be implemented earlier

by non fatalistic I mean in this example we can deprecate the 
"referral-by:" attribute, but when any update to a MNTNER object is 
received containing this attribute the software strips it out and adds a 
warning message, but does not fail the update.

The announcement period would be a minimum of 2 months. If it is a 
complex change requiring significant engineering effort to be scheduled 
it may take more time. In this case the timing of the announcements may 
be adjusted.

If the change affects other working groups, say for example syntax of a 
routing or dns related object, other appropriate working group mailing 
lists will be CC'ed.

Regards
Denis Walker
Business Analyst
RIPE NCC Database Team


On 17/03/2014 14:01, Piotr Strzyzewski wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 17, 2014 at 12:48:44PM +0100, Elvis Velea wrote:
>
> Dear All
>
>> I agree with the deprecation of 'referral-by:' and it's removal from the
>> RIPE Database.
> +1
>
> However, this have to be (as always) carefully done and announced well
> in advance. I assume that there are some systems which rely on objects
> syntax.
>
> Piotr
>