=> To what end? Is the purpose of the database registration information => lookup or a more general white pages service? I' would suggest the => former and leave the latter to the WHOIS++/LDAP/X.500 crowd. = =In general, I agree with this principle: = =The whois servers should be fast & reliable. Yes, it should be fast for simple queries. %server running in background has been introduced already reliability is not (directly) related to speed

We should only support queries that the users (eg.: networking communitity) needs.

Yes.

We better don't support lookup methods that are more usefull for the 'sales & marketing' department. However, this doesn't mean that we shouldn't be user-friendly.

Exactly. And when it's too difficult for the lawyers, they pay some nerd to help them them. Provides them with the data, the nerd with the money and us with the additional effort... Wilfried.