Summary

  • As RIPE Address Policy Working Group chair, Gert Doering reread 247 emails with 2016-03 in the subject and spent almost a day sorting positions on a proposed final-/8 IPv4 transfer ban.
  • Author Remco van Mook later abandoned the proposal after the discussion damaged the community’s reputation. The chairs invited a replacement; none arrived, and RIPE NCC recorded withdrawal on 15 November 2016.

A mailing list can fill a chair’s inbox without filling a policy’s support column. Gert Doering learned the difference with RIPE proposal 2016-03. Remco van Mook had written a rule that would label final-/8 IPv4 allocations ALLOCATED FINAL and stop ordinary transfers of those blocks, while keeping a mergers-and-acquisitions exception. It also urged LIRs to retain part of their last /22 for interoperability. That is a consequential change to what a recipient could do with its final slice, and the proposal text drew a consequential argument.

Doering, as working-group chair, went back through every message he counted with 2016-03 in the subject: 247. In his 16 August 2016 account, he said the reading took almost a day. Repetition, long detours and threads with little connection to the draft had eaten time. He separated the heavily rejected first version from the revised second version, then sorted support, questions and objections rather than treating the height of the email pile as a vote. The second version moved toward review, with a warning that stronger support would be needed.

The ending came from the author, not a chair’s final verdict. On 26 October, co-chair Sander Steffann told the list that van Mook had abandoned the proposal because the discussion was damaging the community’s reputation. The chairs gave anyone willing to take authorship until 11 November. Nobody did. RIPE NCC’s 15 November withdrawal notice closed the file.

Doering’s small feat was making a noisy record readable while the underlying question remained live. A proposed restriction on the last /22 could be argued, revised or rejected. It still needed someone prepared to own its words through the process. Two hundred forty-seven emails supplied plenty of heat. When the author left, the remaining space in the room was the one no reply could fill.