[arin-discuss] The joy of SWIPping

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> I have asked for numerous allocations in 
> the past and ALWAYS been required to SWIP my current 
> allocations to show usage.  I asked once if I could send in a 
> list of our customers and their allocations and was told no, 
> I HAD to SWIP them.

I think this is due to misunderstanding of the English language...
Wait a minute... the darn policy isn't written in plain English, 
your statement above is not in plain English, all bets are off.
Let's just say that it is difficult for members and hostmasters
to communicate clearly about this because SWIP has so many different
meanings to different people. The fact is that some companies have
applied formally to be allowed to submit info in formats other
than SWIP and RWHOIS. Others have informally asked to be allowed
to do this. And ARIN has agreed. 

Escalate the issue within Registration Services. It is not fair
to require anyone to force their addressing database into an
arcane obsolete format in order to get new IP addresses. As long
as it is in a format that the hostmasters can easily manipulate
then it should be OK. I dumped my database into CSV format for them.
If you engage in dialogue, without chest-thumping, then you
*will* find middle ground with ARIN. They cannot advise you what
to do because that is outside their remit. They are only entitled
to interpret policy in order to carry out their analyses of
applications,
not to advise applicants. Some people get upset when they don't get a 
straight answer to a straight question, but that is not really dialogue,
is it?

> For those of you wondering what then end of the story is, I 
> SWIPed my ranges with my customer's names and my address.  

Seems to me that there is no point in publishing contact info
for someone who is not READY, WILLING and ABLE to RESPOND when
contacted about network issues. Since you used your own address
you were actually IMPROVING the quality of the data in the 
whois directory.

--Michael Dillon