[rpd] Policy proposal: RPD mailing list setup and guidelines

[Benson Muite]

Draft Policy Name: RPD mailing list setup and guidelines
ID: (Assigned by AFRINIC)
Submission Date: 17/10/2026
Version: 1
Author(s): (a) Benson Muite, (b) benson_muite at emailplus.org, (c) Affiliation, if applicable

Sections of Policy Manual affected: 3.4

Related Policies: None
Obsoletes: None
Amends: New sections
Proposal

Summary of the problem being addressed by this proposal

Discussion for new policies occurs on a mailing list.  Many people use
threads to enable efficient reading of the mailing list.  For mailing
lists with high activity, people often subscribe to digests.  When
people reply to digests, the metadata associated with a thread can be
lost, making it time consuming to follow a related discussion.

Should AFRINIC decide on alternative means of electronic discussion of
policy proposals other than mailing lists, then these new sections of
the CPM would also need to be updated.

Summary of how this proposal addresses the problem

The proposal asks that AFRINIC disables digest mode on email lists that
receive less than 20 submissions per day on average over a 2 month
period. It also asks that AFRINIC display on its website mailing list
software used, and add a guide to participating in the RPD mailing list.


Proposal (Please use sub-numbering to make it easy for referencing)

3.4.1.1 AFRINIC should maintain a webpage with a description explaining
how to engage on the RPD mailing list.  The description should explain
that only plain text emails should be used, how to start a new
discussion topic and ho2 to reply to an email on a particular discussion
topic and any email filtering or bounce rules that the mailing list
software has.  The mailing list software used and its version should
also be displayed on the webpage.

3.4.1.2 The RPD mailing list must not allow subscription using digest mode
unless over the preceeding two month period, more than 20 emails are
sent to the list on average on each day.  Should this threshold be
exceeded, digest mode subscriptions may be turned on and kept on, unless
over any next two month period, the threshold is not exceeded.

3.4.1.3 If subscribing to the RPD mailing list using digest mode is
enabled, replies to a digest should be discarded and an automated
message sent to the person sending a discarded message letting them know
how they can reply to a specific message, preserving appropriate
metadata or how to start a new discussion topic.



Revision History


References

1. https://www.snort.org/faq/what-is-the-mailing-list-etiquette
2. https://man.sr.ht/lists.sr.ht/etiquette.md
3. http://linux.sgms-centre.com/misc/netiquette.php
4. https://www.ietf.org/participate/lists/