I just wanted to jump in with some further explanation from our end. First, our communications around the changes were wayyy less than desirable. It basically came down to a call as to whether or not we could wait until the next release cycle to get these changes in or not. We didn't feel that we could wait that long for a number of reasons and decided to get it in at the last minute of the previous release cycle. The biggest casualty to this was our communications with all of you. This implementation could have been handled much better and will be in the future. This is not indicative of any change in the weather, but rather indicative of the time pressures that we sometimes face with our release schedule.
The time pressure really stems from a larger strategy that we are working. Whois is essentially broken. It doesn't give registrants the privacy they need, doesn't give the "querier" any reasonable degree of certainty as to the accuracy of the data, doesn't distribute well and lends itself to abuse by those with less than honorable intentions. We can't afford (we meaning you, us and the registrants) to continue to passively condone the state of the art. As a result, we are actively working towards attempting to solve a lot of these problems in an effective manner. The first step of this plan was to ensure that users of our whois service know what their and our mutual rights and obligations are. It is largely correct that the fine print is largely for the benefit of the boneheads. As far as more changes to the system in pursuing these goals, you have my word that we will be a lot more proactive in communicating with y'all. Lastly, just a note that we are looking at all of the suggestions that have come out of the last 24 hours or so of discussion on this subject with a view that we might be able to achieve our original goals with a slightly modified approach - stay tuned for more on this front. -rwr > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 1:04 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Geektools whois proxy - OpenSRS Whois Results > > > > > > A customer just wrote and told us our BW Whois has also > has quit working > > > with OpenSRS's changes. We are going to stop offering > who-is lookups I > > > guess as we have enough to do with out these changes. > > Interesting. The OpenSRS changes have not effected our whois > interface at all... I guess BW Whois and Geektools are > hardcoded to accept a very specific format from OpenSRS which > causes them to break and require upgrades when OpenSRS > changes their format. >
