On Thu, 26 Jan 2023 at 07:18, denis walker <ripedenis@gmail.com> wrote: [...]
This is exactly what I said. In the quoted para above I said "the country codes have a well defined meaning", which you agree with. Then I said "but when entered by users no one knows what it's purpose is.". Another way of saying no one knows their meaning in the context of the database, which you also agree with.
But even if we started to define a meaning at this late stage, who would choose to use it?
In the case of the ORGANISATION object it would be at this 'early' stage. Which I think would be a bad idea. For the INET(6)NUM objects I agree it is at a late stage. But for the last 20 years many people have assumed the country codes relate to geolocation and used the data in that way. If we define it to mean that now, and make it optional, we are aligning reality with what so many people already believe. With clear explanations sent to all resource holders and/or maintainers of the resource objects, I think we could get this message out there.
Setting semantics aside... I don't know whether changing definitions — and adding a missing definition is a de facto change — would improve things or make them worse. What research do we have to support the position that it would be an improvement? Kind regards, Leo