[dns-operations] "but her emails!" (Re: Denying Whois DB by GeoIP)

[Paul Vixie]

how much spam we each do or don't get to our whois contact mailboxes is
immaterial to the broader question of the purpose of whois and the
burden of internet resource holders.

if you get too much spam, register a mailbox at @gmail.com for use as
your whois contacts. there are probably other free mailbox services that
do a fine job of filtering the stuff out. i always use paulvixie@ the
gmail service when i'm signing up for an online service that i think
will spam me. it's gangster-on-gangster violence, except google is on my
side.

what would be better is if i (and if all internet resource holders) used
our proper mailboxes, and then properly reported all spam we receive
that way to abusix and spamhaus and the other anti-spam teams, so that
they could collate, communicate, and possibly shun the sources. back
pressure of that kind is the only thing that will make spamming a whois
database less joyful and less profitable.

what we must NOT do is allow any internet resource holder (whether
that's a domain name or an IP address) to shirk their burden of hearing
legitimate questions, concerns, and complaints from those of us who are
receiving unwanted and often malicious traffic either from, or referring
to, those resources. and in any case the rest of us need to be able to
determine, by lack of reply or lack of constructive reply, that the
resources in question are beyond recourse -- so that we may shun them.

please don't try to use "i hate spam" as an excuse to not put a valid
e-mail address into your whois contact information. it's incredibly lame
and not even you will want to live in the world that descends from such
policy or such decision-making.

vixie