Colleagues I agree with closing NWI-17. It would be a nightmare to implement and I also believe it would put a considerable workload onto the RIPE NCC to operate. There is a lot of hidden complexity in this simple suggestion. I won't go into any detail unless anyone pushes for this NWI to be continued. NWI-2 is a different story. As David pointed out at RIPE 91, I wrote the spec for introducing historical queries when I was at the NCC. At the time this was a feature that had been talked about over coffee and beers at meetings. There had been no great discussion on mailing lists. The RIPE NCC decided to introduce this feature and see if it was useful. We didn't want to invest a huge amount of time and effort in this. So I added this arbitrary limitation of only giving history of the current instance of an object. The way the data model works, when you delete and re-create an object it becomes a different instance. You can then have multiple versions of multiple instances of an object. So this limitation made the code easier to write. We got it up and running and over the years it has proved to be quite useful to many database users. We could look at removing this arbitrary limit in the same way. It has been talked about in the corridors at meetings. As with the original concept, there hasn't been any great discussion on mailing lists. So my suggestion to the RIPE NCC is to just do it. We have this ongoing debate about whether some changes should be an NWI or PDP. Some changes perhaps don't even need to be debated. The RIPE NCC introduced this arbitrary limitation without any discussion. They can just remove it now as a software update. I am sure that I said at the time that I had added this arbitrary limitation and that it could be removed if historical queries proved to be a useful feature. So I think we have already made the argument for removing it. cheers denis On Mon, 15 Dec 2025 at 00:19, David Tatlisu via db-wg <db-wg@ripe.net> wrote:
Hi Everybody, At RIPE 91 I talked about how we would like to cancel NWI-2 and NWI-17, which both concern some variation of historical data in the RIPE database.
NWI-2 concerns lifting some arbitrary limitations in the retrieval of historical data, as well as allowing the retrieval of deleted objects which have not been re-created.
NWI-17 is significantly more complex, as it centers around implementing the *Database Requirements Task Force Recommendations [1],* and I suggest three possibilities for the future of this NWI:
1. Try to move NWI-17 forward by requesting a GDPR compliance report from the NCC 1. Since the RIPE NCC is the data controller GDPR compliance is technically solely their responsibility 2. Try to move this NWI forward by reducing the problem stated in the *Database Requirements Task Force Recommendations* by removing the special case for researchers getting wider access to data 3. Cancel NWI-17
Considering the discussions about both NWIs have died down over the last years, I would suggest we cancel both NWIs while keeping the option to re-open them in case interest grows.
With this, I would like to cancel both NWI-2 and NWI-17 on January 5th assuming the working group does not want to keep them open.
Please keep in mind that I do understand that these NWIs have not been created for the fun of it, and have good reasons behind them, but lack of discussion around these NWIs even considering several attempts to rejuvenate them also tells a story.
[1]: https://www.ripe.net/community/tf/rdb-requirements-tf/database-requirements-...
Me talking about them at RIPE91: https://ripe91.ripe.net/programme/meeting-plan/sessions/38/R7WC3F/
Thank you for your feedback.
David Tatlisu, On behalf of the Database WG Chairs.
--- To me, in a personal capacity, closing them would be a formality as they have not had active discussions over the last several years, making them unofficially but effectively cancelled already.
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