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[Martin C <martin AT mchomenet.com>]

> or thin whois, where we will point to the provider that
> registered the domain name's whois service.
This is currently how my whois server works, by running on the TLD 
server itself. However, it also means that registrars will need to query 
each individual TLD master for a domain check or information query.

I was thinking of having maybe Tier0 or a designated Tier1 server be the 
master whois responder, which then re-directs the query to the 
appropriate server for a response.

> Also, should we specify one unified whois format (with required
> fields, and maybe a standardised MOTD) or should we keep each
If we wanted to use it for this, which is one of my goals, the RM API 
could co-ordinate the changes as they need to be processed.

One possible idea is that updated information is sent from each TLD 
master to the whois master using the RM API. Then only one central point 
of contact runs the whole whois system.

> tld free to operate the whois service the way that they wish to operate it?
This is the way my system currently runs (see first paragraph). It 
queries the TLD database directly for the information needed.

So there are at least two ways of handling whois so far:
* whois master re-directs the query to each TLD master for the 
information needed and they respond.
* whois master answers directly using information stored (in a format to 
be decided) locally which is received via RM API.

(I know you mention those two points, I guess my response just attempts 
to explore the specifics of the implementation of it. As to thick or 
thin systems, I'll leave that up to the community to decide which one 
suits our needs the most.)

As to required fields, Jamyn gave me some excellent feedback on this for 
my whois server which I implemented and it provides a great solid base 
to work with. Domain name, date registered, date modified, date of 
expiration, registrant's name and email, domain status, nameservers and 
registrar's URL, besides the introductory message.

--
Martin C