[AusNOG] Inappropriate commercially sensitive discussion threads on AusNOG mailing list

[Kevin Karp]

AusNOG'ers

I was disturbed to read this Saturday morning a discussion thread that 
occurred on the AusNOG mailing list yesterday afternoon concerning the 
actions of parties involved in a commercial dispute involving ISP's and 
upstream transit providers.

The source of my concerns are:

1. The discussion was devoid of any technical merit or consequence
2. The thread involved a matter that was of a purely commercial and 
legal nature between the parties involved
3. The names of apparently innocent third party organisations were 
brought into the thread for no apparent reason or benefit
4. The discussion could only present one side of what may be a complex 
commercial matter
5. The act of posting the item on the AusNOG mailing list may have 
consequences for all of those that participate on the AusNOG mailing 
list even to the level of passive subscribers who did not actually 
contribute to the thread.
6. Sufficient information may have been divulged to identify individual 
parties involved in the dispute so representing breaches of 
confidentiality at many different levels (client-ISP, outsourcer-client etc)
7. No indication as to what authority or in what role the originating 
poster had in raising the topic

My reading of the AusNOG list charter is such that discussion threads of 
this type would be in breach of that charter. In particular the charter 
states:

"The AusNOG mailing list has been established to provide a forum for
    the exchange of technical information, the discussion of specific
    implementation issues that require cooperation among network service
    providers, the discussion of operational issues, and the discussion  of
    technical issues directly relating to the internet service provision
    and telecommunications industry."

For instance, I don't believe that "operational issues" is meant to 
cover commercial and legal issues.

The charter further states that the list "is NOT a forum for... 
end-users to pester their ISP".

Could managers of the list please advise if the thread is to be honoured 
in the list archives and if discussion threads of this type are going to 
be permitted to occur again in the future?

The response of the list managers will be a prompt for me to consider my 
continued subscription to the AusNOG mailing list.

Thank you for your consideration of this matter.

Best Regards

Kevin Karp
PPS Internet
e: kjkarp at pps.com.au