Should cat that were rumoured but never employed be deleted from the register?

[peterkwells]

As boffbowsh points out in this PR 21 it appears that reports of Cromwell being appointed by the Cabinet Office were incorrect.

A record in the cat register does exist. Should this record be set to 'Inactive' or should the record be deleted as it may have been incorrectly created in the first place?

This issue is for the community to debate what policy it would like in place.

As a temporary solution the record has been set to 'Inactive'

[peterkwells]

(Obviously there are technical elements that might impact on the implementation of the policy, do debate in parallel, they should inform each other)

[glynrjones]

I don't think either setting to 'inactive' or deleting the record is appropriate:

• inactive equates Cromwell with cats who have long and honourable service behind them;
• deleting the record loses the opportunity to provide the authoritive response to a significant rumour.

So I think a different status is required - I'm tempted to suggest 'debunked' but that seems a little harsh and overly specific. Maybe there's a need for two other categories: 'unconfirmed' and, for Cromwell, 'disproved'.