GUIDELINES

VOCABULARY:
Remailer:
 it can be an actual remailer, a pinger, a link provider
 or any individual body willing to participate and provide the informations
 (and found worth being scanned)
MetaPinger:
 it can be an actual MetaPinger,
 or a mere individual looking at one "Remailer Description" after the other
Remailer Description:
 it is the set of formatted data which describe
   the remailer operations
   the "goodies" that are offered
   any information for which a "keyword" has been accepted
Keyword:
 unique identifier for a piece of information
 in a database, it would be called a "field name"    

RULE #1
It all works on a "voluntarily" basis
-Remailers who don't want to leak information about themselves don't have to
  They just drop the corresponding keywords in their "Description"
  MetaPingers just have to cope with the fact that
    not everybody wants to tell everything
-MetaPingers who don't want to collect specific information don't have to
  They just skip the corresponding keywords
  Remailers just have to cope with the fact that
    not everybody is interested with what they want to tell
-MetaPingers who think they know better
  can always override remailer-supplied (not-suplied) by stuff of their own
  Still, basic courtesy is recommended
    (i.e. do not leak personnal info that the owner wants to keep discreet)

RULE #2
"Remailer description" must be both machine-readable and human-readable
 (keywords and data should be pseudo-significant for a non-expert human)

RULE #3
"Remailer description" location must be convenient for both remailers and non-remailers
 (IOW: no need to recompile anything)
In case of multiple locations for a single remailer, info should be identical
 (IOW: better opt for only one location)

RULE #4
There should be no ambiguity about a keyword meaning/content
But in case an ambiguity appears, the non-ambiguous keyword should be enforced ASAP
For compatibility reason,
 former keyword should probably be kept for the "most common" acception of the keyword.
It is recommended to think of such problems before proposing a new keyword
There should not be 2 different keywords for same piece of information.

RULE #5
Besides ambiguity issues, anybody is entitled to propose any new keyword, English-looking.
There might be no remailer to provide the corresponding info,
 or no MetaPinger to collect it though...
There is probably a need for some centralized file
 (or universally accepted understanding of):
   "keyword" <-> "keyword meaning and parameters"
Minimum requirement is "Keyword" and "Keyword Description + parameters"
 but a sample of "how to use keyword" is probably welcome to help understanding
Additionally, people will often propose a whole group of keywords,
 with shared interest 

RULE #6
Maximun scalability is the rule for information behind a keyword
MetaPingers' first move will probably be to convert the all-purpose general format
 to the various formats they need for the information they are really after,
 for each specific application