Decius wrote:
So, if you have a domain you are required to publish a telephone number in the whois database for everyone in the world to access. I have a number of domains, including this one. I had a working email address and real mailing address in the contact fields for these domains, but the phone number was phoney. (My registrar had my real phone number, but it wasn't published in whois.)
Why? Because I don't want to publish my personal cellphone number so that every idiot who wants to buy one of my domains can call me up at any hour of the day and talk to me about it. There is no real technical or administrative coordination issue that could possibly come up with any of my domains that would require that someone be able to immediately reach my personal cellphone. An email would always suffice. I could go to the trouble of setting up a voice mail box, but I'd never check it, so this would be a waste of time.
Why not just set up a vm box that emails you when someone puts a message in it. Some systems even email you the message, making maintenance a breeze.