[db-wg] Change of Country entries in the database

On Wed, 22 Oct 2003, Shane Kerr wrote:

> Daniel Karrenberg wrote:
> > On 10.10 11:20, Hank Nussbacher wrote:
> >
> >>>Indeed, because of this reason, it might be good idea to obsolete
> >>>"country:" attribute in the inetnums. What do you think about
> >>>this?
> >>
> >>Please don't.99.9% accurate info is better than 0% info.
> >
> >
> > I agree with Hank. One has to clearly differentiate between *hard* info
> > that needs as close to 100% accuracy as one can get, and *soft* info that
> > is still useful even when full accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
> >
> > Examples of hard info are address space allocation and assignment chains.
> > country: is an example of soft info.
> >
> > Removing an attribute because its information is becoming too soft should
> > only be done when the usefulness is much less thanthe current country:.
> 
> Perhaps we should make it optional then.People who want to maintain the 
> information can keep it up to date, and people who want to use the
> information will have greater certainty that if the attribute is there
> that it is correct.

I wouldn't make it optional, but I very much like your idea below but will
cause havoc on all those automated scripty things out there pulling out
the country tag and assuming a 2 character string.  If you make the change
remember to post to many Internet lists so everyone knows of the change.

-Hank

> 
> Also, I suggest that it may make sense to make it list-valued.Right now 
> it is:
> 
> country:     [mandatory]  [multiple]   [ ]
> 
> So users who have networks in multiple countries and want to document have
> to do things like:
> 
> country: NL
> country: BE
> country: DE
> 
> Or worse, things like:
> 
> country: NL # BE DE
> 
> Allowing the use of:
> 
> country:NL, BE, DE
> 
> Would solve this issue.
> 
> --
> Shane Kerr
> RIPE NCC
> 

Hank Nussbacher