[PDB Tech] allow empty IP field or not?

[Job Snijders]

Hi all,

Sometimes people want to disclose their presence at an Internet
Exchange, but don't want to disclose their IP address.

Should PeeringDB allow the IPv4 and IPv6 field to be either of the
following?

    "a valid globally unique IP address"
    "" (empty)

Or should PDB only accept valid globally unique IP addresses as value
for the IP Field?

It appears we've gone back and forth between allowing empty and not
allowing empty as is visible here: https://www.peeringdb.com/ix/1138
(currently empty is not allowed).

An argument against 'empty' is that from an automation perspective the
'empty' value is quite useless.

Based on the outcome of this discussion I'd like to either clean up the
database, or popularise the use of the 'empty ip field' where
applicable.

Kind regards,

Job