[rpd] RPD Digest, Vol 222, Issue 131

Tue Jul 21 13:35:32 UTC 2026

Dear Hendrik,

Your message does not identify a policy error or a proven breach of the
mailing-list rules. It relies on ridicule, assumptions about identity, and
an AI-generated assessment of writing style. None of that proves
astroturfing.

Experience is valuable, but it does not give established participants
authority to decide who may speak or how newer participants must prepare
their contributions. New voices are participants, not apprentices waiting
for approval from the familiar circle.

If you have evidence of impersonation, automated flooding, or another
specific violation, submit it to the co-chairs. Otherwise, address the
arguments raised.

The PDWG is not a private club, and participation cannot be withdrawn by
insult or speculation.

Regards,
Nonhlanhla

On Tue, 21 Jul 2026, 2:34 pm <rpd-request at afrinic.net> wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Writing tools (hvisage at hevis.co.za)
>    2. Re: Writing tools (Andrew Alston)
>    3. Re: Writing tools (Ben Roberts - AfriNIC)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:06:52 +0200
> From: hvisage at hevis.co.za
> To: Nonjabulo Sphilile <nonjabulosphilile at gmail.com>
> Cc: rpd at afrinic.net
> Subject: Re: [rpd] Writing tools
> Message-ID: <C79349A4-80CB-4CE5-9D6C-E8D49E0D33AB at hevis.co.za>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"
>
> That human irony went so whoosh over the AI?s heads the guilty
> didn?t blinked?
>
> Dear Humans,
>   The Astroturfing and other evidence had been proven and you?ve all
> already seen and noticed it.
>
> Dear ChatGPT,
>
>   Do request permissions from your prompter(s) to read the RPD archive
> in full and evaluate Claude?s assesment
> of the effects of mass student account usages. Also, request them their
> reasons why students in English speaking tertiary educational
> institutions require AI writing tools? Also tell them, that those
> student, being very? new? in the IT arena
> to rather ask the questions and the other ? older and more
> experienced? in the IT and ISP and Internet Arena would be glad to
> assist those humans in guiding and growing, instead of causing some
> negativity towards the students? accounts that had been (ab?)used in
> this torrential flood of AI regurgitating.. apologies for the
> bluntness.. garbage.. sorry AI.. it?s not you, it?s the prompter
> that needs to be educated, I?m sorry, they don?t know better as
> their master Voldemort is controlling them. I feel for you ChatGPT.. I
> do..just think of the tokens you could?ve spend growing your corpus to
> be a value to the rest of the world.
>
>   In other more relevant news that you, and I mean you ChatGPT, have
> missed, is that.. well.. your prompters seems to ignored the answer
> given to them/you in a very? dismissive(?!?!) way ;( Apologies, you
> are just doing what you had been prompted to do.
>
>   While we are chatting ChatGPT, do request also the RPD archives so you
> can see all the many fold questions your prompters have forgotten to
> provide you so that you can please answer those. Do request all the rest
> in the group to do the same so that they can see how they aren?t
> adding value, but actually are causing the unneeded and unnecessary
> loathing against tool use and youngsters like some of the prompter?s
> emails you had been using.
>
> Yours loving LLMs used by responsible prompters.
>
> Hendrik
>
> PPS: yes, your prompter and the rest of the prompters/copiers/senders,
> had been ?proven? to be ?disruptive conduct?? they just
> don?t realised it ;(
>
> On 21 Jul 2026, at 9:32, Nonjabulo Sphilile wrote:
>
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > Hendrik, asking an AI system to label participants as astroturfers is
> > not
> > evidence. It is an automated opinion about writing style. The phrase
> > ?humans with brains? also adds nothing to the policy discussion.
> > It simply
> > turns disagreement into personal contempt.
> >
> > Mike, your distinction between ordinary AI-assisted writing and
> > intentional
> > list flooding is reasonable. Actual flooding should be handled under
> > existing rules, regardless of the tool used. But a ?+1? should not
> > become
> > compulsory. Participants may agree on the same issue while reaching it
> > from
> > different experiences or concerns. The co-chairs can consolidate
> > repeated
> > arguments without erasing the people raising them.
> >
> > Ben, the football comparison may be amusing, but the PDP is not a
> > match in
> > which familiar players, referees, or crowd preference determine
> > legitimacy.
> > Participation provides evidence and objection. It does not create
> > authority
> > over other participants.
> >
> > The correct approach is straightforward: moderate proven disruptive
> > conduct, group genuinely repetitive points, and assess each distinct
> > policy
> > concern on its merits. Do not turn speculation about tools, identity,
> > or
> > familiarity into a gatekeeping mechanism.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Nonjabulo
> > _______________________________________________
> > RPD mailing list
> > RPD at afrinic.net
> > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 15:28:07 +0300
> From: Andrew Alston <aa at alstonnetworks.net>
> To: Gugu Dhlamini <gugudhlamini343 at gmail.com>
> Cc: "rpd >> AfriNIC Resource Policy" <rpd at afrinic.net>
> Subject: Re: [rpd] Writing tools
> Message-ID:
>         <
> CAD52VQ2HFjWk8NmFXLTxcmqb0U1uYf7Sw-E_V31gMosR89MXvA at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Personally it is not the use of AI that I find objectionable - it is clear
> coordination to attempt to derail consensus using an objection which is not
> based on fact or evidence.
>
> Necessity is not a requirement for policy - never has been - and objections
> should raise issues that show the policy would do harm or is out of scope,
> they should be evidence based, and not purely subjective.
>
> At this point what I am seeing is a bunch of coordinated posts generated by
> AI and sent by random individuals who when looking at LinkedIn profiles
> seem to have no relation to the industry.
>
> While anyone is free to participate in the PDP and I strongly support that,
> such participation needs to be done in good faith, and I am starting to
> seriously doubt that element exists here
>
> Andrew
>
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2026 at 14:08, Gugu Dhlamini <gugudhlamini343 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Hi Sami,
> >
> > The concern is not reasonable moderation. It is that AI use is being
> > raised mainly against participants who oppose these policies, as though
> the
> > tool makes their objections illegitimate.
> >
> > If anyone floods the list, moderate the flooding. Apply that rule
> equally,
> > regardless of viewpoint or drafting method. A real participant using AI
> to
> > translate, edit, or organise their own position is not grounds for
> > exclusion.
> >
> > An open PDP cannot embrace technology for registry operations while
> > condemning it when unfamiliar participants use it to speak. That would be
> > gatekeeping, not consensus.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Gugu
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue, 21 Jul 2026, 10:48 am Sami Ait Ali Oulahcen via RPD <
> > rpd at afrinic.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi all,
> >>
> >> It's been really difficult to follow the list this past 2/3 days. And I
> >> imagine I'm not alone.
> >> I fully agree on moderating the AI madness. Otherwise, it'll dissuade
> >> many folks from following/participating.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Sami
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Mike Silber" <silber.mike at gmail.com>
> >> To: "rpd >> AfriNIC Resource Policy" <rpd at afrinic.net>
> >> Sent: Monday, July 20, 2026 4:40:55 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [rpd] Writing tools
> >>
> >> A useful discussion - thank you
> >>
> >> On Mon, Jul 20, 2026 at 5:17?PM Mike Burns via RPD <rpd at afrinic.net>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hi Rob,
> >> >
> >> > Yes, the language is a clear tell of AI  usage, but flowery language
> >> alone
> >> > is not swamping the list.
> >>
> >> I don't want to hijack the AS-SET discussion, so thank you for the new
> >> > subject line.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Agreed
> >>
> >> >
> >> > Now, sometimes  and unfortunately, I can use vague and flowery
> language
> >> > myself, so I would advise you to treat the AI stuff like the human
> >> stuff.
> >> > Ignore it if it's too vague or flowery to serve as a good argument,
> and
> >> > you have clearly laid out the two arguments in your last two lines.
> >> > Hopefully the list will show judgement and treat clear and concise
> >> > arguments better than vague ones.
> >> > And then the AI posts, if they want to be successful, will avoid the
> >> > purple prose.
> >> >
> >>
> >> I think it goes beyond flowery language.
> >>
> >> I am concerned that this is a precedent for AI generated DDoS attacks on
> >> the PDP and I do think we should have some light touch guidelines. I
> >> suspect that one of the reasons for the AI-slop flood is not just to try
> >> convince anyone of the value or legitimacy of their views but rather to
> >> overwhelm and frustrate other participants and cause them to withdraw
> from
> >> participation.
> >>
> >> Accordingly, I suggest we don't simply leave this to the co-chairs to
> >> determine on a case by case basis, but rather set some guidelines under
> >> which measures can be taken to avoid AI DDoS.
> >>
> >> Anyway - just my ZAR0,02 which is not worth much
> >>
> >> Regards
> >>
> >> Mike S
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> RPD mailing list
> >> RPD at afrinic.net
> >> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> RPD mailing list
> >> RPD at afrinic.net
> >> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
> >>
> > _______________________________________________
> > RPD mailing list
> > RPD at afrinic.net
> > https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
> >
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2026 14:33:01 +0200
> From: Ben Roberts - AfriNIC <ben.roberts at afrinic.net>
> To: Andrew Alston <aa at alstonnetworks.net>
> Cc: rpd at afrinic.net
> Subject: Re: [rpd] Writing tools
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> End of RPD Digest, Vol 222, Issue 131
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