Hi Markus, Thanks for your feedback.
Regarding your question: illegal content will also have to be (re)moved from the unmoderated archives. However, there can be many other reasons for moderating/rejecting a mail. Illegal content will hopefully be a very rare exception. The unmoderated archives are there to provide transparency into that process and the decisions made by the moderator. Kind regards, Mirjam On 03/09/2022 12:30, Markus de Brün wrote: > Mirjam, > > thank you for your explanation and your suggestions. This seems like a > reasonable way forward to me, especially having a discussion on this in > the community plenary. > I was wondering: If you have to remove an email from the archive for > legal reasons, why would this be different for an unmoderated archive? > > Regards, > Markus > > On 02.09.22 09:02, Mirjam Kuehne wrote: >> Dear colleagues, >> >> In light of recent events on this mailing list, I have put together some >> thoughts on moderation and a proposed way forward. I will put this topic >> on the agenda for the RIPE 85 Community Plenary. >> >> Context >> >> On 22 July, a highly offensive racist email was sent to the RIPE >> Discussion List. This mail clearly violates the RIPE Code of Conduct. >> After discussion with the RIPE NCC, we decided to enable moderation on >> the list. >> >> On 23 July, people who had responded to the offender, notably myself, >> the RIPE NCC’s Chief Community Officer, and another RIPE community >> member, were sent further offensive mails by this person and were >> subjected to ‘subscription bombing’ attacks (many thousands of mailing >> list subscription requests sent to our inboxes). >> >> List Moderation >> >> All mails sent to <[email protected]> have been held for moderation >> since this incident. They are reviewed by either Niall O’Reilly or >> myself (as the RIPE Chair Team) before they are allowed through to the list. >> >> The RIPE community has always been open to everyone and it has a >> demonstrated ability to self-govern. We therefore view our decision here >> as quite a severe one. Nevertheless, we have received a lot of support >> from community members for these actions. With that support in mind, we >> propose that we continue with moderation of the list until at least RIPE 85. >> >> The moderation queue will be reviewed at least once a day, and together >> Niall and I will decide how to proceed. If one of us is unavailable, we >> will coordinate with other community members to ensure that we always >> have more than one person available to moderate the list. >> >> I will also provide a transparency report to keep the community informed >> of activities and decisions ‘behind the scenes’ (i.e. whether mails have >> been held/rejected and how many). >> >> So far, no mails have been rejected without us first contacting the >> original sender. This helps to increase understanding of the process. >> However, it will ultimately be the moderators who decide if a mail is >> rejected or not. >> >> Offensive or Illegal Mails >> >> We will remove the mail from 22 July from the RIPE List archives. This >> message has no content beyond its aim to cause offense. Modifying >> archives is not something we do lightly. In this case, we believe it is >> important to avoid the implication that this kind of language is >> acceptable to us as a community, especially for anyone reading the >> archives in the future. >> >> Rather than simply removing the mail, I asked the RIPE NCC to move the >> content of the URL in question and replace it with an explanation that >> makes it clear that a message has been taken out and why. This would >> also apply to another mail sent in response, as it quoted the offensive >> mail. >> >> We also understand that the offensive email is illegal under Dutch law. >> Because the RIPE NCC maintains the public archives of our mailing lists, >> it is regarded as a hosting provider and with this comes an obligation >> to remove unlawful content from its public infrastructure. >> >> Future Archives >> >> Some community members have suggested that we set up an ‘unmoderated >> archive’, which is similar to how the RIPE NCC Member Discussion List is >> currently set up. I agree that this is a workable solution that supports >> transparency. It means that the complete archives, including any >> rejected mails, will be available under a different URL that is separate >> from the regular RIPE List archives. >> >> We propose not indexing these unmoderated archives so they do not appear >> in search engines. We will also add a warning to this page so that >> people are informed that they might find rude or offensive content in >> the unmoderated archives. >> >> We believe such an approach is important for transparency, while at the >> same time avoiding receiving offensive emails that undermine the >> important work of our community. >> >> Kind regards, >> Mirjam Kühne >> RIPE Chair >> >> >> -- To unsubscribe from this mailing list, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options, please visit: https://lists.ripe.net/mailman/listinfo/ripe-list
