[anti-abuse-wg] Astroturfing?

On Wed, 3 Apr 2019, Michele Neylon - Blacknight wrote:

> Is someone encouraging astroturfing?
>
> The number of either new or inactive members of this list who have 
> posted one line messages in support of the recent policy discussion has 
> reached insane levels

This specific discussion was highlighted to me and was the reason I joined 
the list. I've been reading a lot of the comments and haven't responded 
yet, but this is my first post to this list so I come under the above 
group.

As an outsider, what I would say is that there's a lot of noise here. Was 
I not from the community in the wider sense and undertand the concept of 
how technical communities come up with policies, I'd be put right off. I 
think this environment makes it easier for those with more control over 
their time to contribute. I can see some really valuable and thought out 
contributions, alongside shorter ones where I can't see the thinking 
process.

It can be quite valid for members of this community to have a legitimate 
view on the issues raised in the 2019-03 proposal without being willing to 
commit huge amounts of time in debating in this environment. I'm not that 
familiar with the RIPE policty process but my understanding is the next 
phase means we will have a revision. What is unclear to me is whether it 
would have outstanding questions which could be summarised such that those 
'+1' responses could indicate more about their views on the specifics 
around particular aspects of the proposals which are controversial rather 
than ending up with what is almost-voting kind of support.

seb


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