[arin-ppml] [E] Re: AFRINIC vote buying

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 10:39 PM William Herrin <bill at herrin.us> wrote:

> Hi John,
>
> As you well know, the general member mailing list is closed to the
> public. I do not have access and could not raise an issue there if I
> wanted to.

Technically, the list archive is open to the public (at
least it is right now, perhaps that is an error?), but you
(and I) do not have the option to post a comment or
opinion as we are not part of a general member org
(I consider that "access" (to the record), but not the
"ability to raise an issue" (by posting)).

The list archive (currently very boring) can be found
at: https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/general-members/



As I recall, a very very long time ago it was possible
to be a member of ARIN without any resources for
a nominal fee.  I even considered (personally) paying
that fee in order to be able to more fully participate
by voting in elections, and (possibly) being on some
committees.  I also recall that option of being such a
member being eliminated at some point due to, I
suspect, the concern about potential board capture
(why buy others votes when you could just buy more
tickets to vote).

As a member based org, ARIN membership is
free to decide how many (and how few) opportunities
and access to the org to grant to non-members.
Whether that is ultimately a good or bad thing is,
ultimately, up to the members (and, as mentioned
above, as a non-member, I don't get to have an
opinion that ultimately counts).