[ripe-list] The Future of Discussion Lists

Leo Vegoda <leo at vegoda.org> wrote:
    > - Am I wrong? Are e-mail discussion lists a sustainable communication
    > channel for the foreseeable future?

Yes.

    > - Are e-mail discussion lists an
    > acceptable technology to people joining the industry?

It's true that I observe that my 18yr old doesn't do much email.
But historically, few of them ever did.
We used to teach how to do email back in the 1980s as "Internet 101", and I
think we need to redo that material.

    > In 1992, when ripe-001 was published, anyone could run e-mail services
    > on any Internet infrastructure they could use. It is now far more
    > difficult to run e-mail services. Technology developments, like DMARC,
    > have made discussion mailing lists less effective.

We, as a community, need to make some strategic investments in (DM)ARC support.
Mailman3, which the IETF will shortly move to, is better than mailman2,
but... it also is way more complex to maintain.  I still can't get my
installation to archive properly.

    > Validation failures increase the probability of messages being treated
    > as junk. Subscribers to RIPE's discussion lists will miss messages when
    > their e-mail services provider treats them as junk.

The IETF will have to, I think, start offering an IMAP/mailbox service to
many participants because for many, nothing else is working.  I think that it
would be more difficult for RIPE to do that, but it's something to think
about.   Ideally, there would be a standard (BCP/BCOP) on useful email
services, and there would be multiple providers who agree to work with us.

It would be nice if abuse@ boxes could operate in a consistent way, if email
reports from one ISP to another could more easily be authenticated, for
instance.

    > I believe that new protocols and platforms are preferred over e-mail by
    > potential participants in RIPE at the start of their careers. We want
    > these people to take part in RIPE. They are the future of coordination
    > for the operators of IP networks in Europe and the rest of the world.

I don't really buy this argument.
Yeah, I prefer ice cream for dinner too.
The problem isn't that young people prefer things other than email, it's that
they have yet to ever actually use properly configured email, and have grown
up with webmail *ONLY*, and then they get to work, and they also don't get
email, but gateways LOOKOUT, which also doesn't work right.

--
Michael Richardson <mcr+IETF at sandelman.ca>   . o O ( IPv6 IøT consulting )
           Sandelman Software Works Inc, Ottawa and Worldwide
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