Colleagues, This morning Tobias and I asked the NCC to take the very unusual step, effectively immediately, of removing the person behind svenk@xs4all.nl from the Anti-Abuse WG mailing list. This was not done lightly, rather it was done to safeguard this community. We would ask the members not to forward any of their mails to the list, nor to include them in list discussions. This mailing list is a place to discuss network abuse (of all sorts, not just spam) amongst ISPs, LEAs, Governments, Enterprise Networks and any concerned Internet Citizens. It is not a place to insult, to decry, to repeatedly state the same point over and over or to discriminate against other members of the community based on their race, creed, gender or sexual preferences. If we cannot maintain a list upon which reasonable discussion can take place, then it leaves our community in a weakened state. Tobias and I discussed this matter with Hans Petter Holen, the RIPE Chair, and we have arrived at this course of action. The Co-Chairs are happy to answer reasonable questions off-list. Of course this is a community mailing list, so we are also happy for discussion to take place here. However, as with all discussions, we would ask that if people do wish for this, that it remain respectful and on topic. If required we can devote some time to discussion of this at RIPE74. Brian & Tobias Co-Chairs, RIPE AA-WG