Hi, Thanks for the second-order perspective - genuinely interesting point about growing the community via affordable LIR entry. Fair question: would more small LIRs lead to higher support costs? Past discussions on members-discuss noted that M&A consolidations and transfers were charged below cost versus actual fees. I guess data cannot exist showing per-LIR costs scale sustainably under a new charging model that hasn't been implemented, but I imagine there has to be some kind of [realized actual] cost attributable per LIR beyond a straight "budget/number-of-lirs". For example, would it affect the amount of training offered? or amount of support tickets handled by humans? Supposing Opt B wins and beneficiaries grow, curious how that impacts budget dynamics. Kaj ________________________________ From: Job Snijders via members-discuss <members-discuss@ripe.net> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2026 15:49 To: members-discuss@ripe.net <members-discuss@ripe.net> Subject: [members-discuss] Re: RIPE NCC Charging Scheme Proposals Announced Dear Simon, others, On Wed, Apr 22, 2026 at 11:36:36AM +0100, Simon Lockhart wrote:
On Wed Apr 22, 2026 at 11:41:07AM +0200, Andreas Grabm?ller | QuarIT GmbH wrote:
There have been calculators during the discussions, in Excel form. Personally, I dislike the calculators. They reinforce the mindset of "I'll vote for what allows me to pay the least".
This is a strong point to flag here - with the category pricing as proposed, the majority of members will pay less, therefore if they're not sleeping through this process then they'll all vote for it. The <50% of members who would end up paying more cannot in themselves stop it happening.
FWIW, I agree with you that voting options that might lower one's cost can be expected to attract a cohort of voters for that reason alone, but I think there also are second-order effects to consider when preparing to cast a vote one way or another. For exampe, it is not too hard to imagine that a probable outcome of lowering the financial barrier-to-participate-as-a-LIR would be an increase in the number of people that then can participate in the RIPE community (and consequently the global Internet infrastructure community). Signing up as your own small LIR is an excellent way to get some hands-on experience with IP & AS assignment procedures and to obtain global Internet number resources & RPKI certification services, all under one's own full control. A "smaller pricetag for the smaller category" in some ways could be seen as a vehicle to support the creation of more affordable self-study opportunities for others, perhaps to help them prepare for what otherwise can be hard-to-enter "experience required" jobmarket segments. Category-based billing might be a way to better socialize the cost of the community's hands-on educational facilities. Perhaps in two years' time we can trace a spike of interest from a younger generation to actively participate in Internet engineering back to this year's charging scheme vote. The association's method of charging has impact beyond just the immediate financial consequences. Kind regards, Job To unsubscribe or manage your subscription, log in to the LIR Portal with your RIPE NCC Access account and go to the LIR Account page: https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmy.ripe.net%2F%23%2Faccount-details&data=05%7C02%7C%7C6de2ef890c8c4377773208dea0739898%7Cd0b71c570f9b4acc923b81d0b26b55b3%7C0%7C0%7C639124615504933025%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C4000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=B6vRdwc%2FSQRMOn7%2Beb9yk7vNWYxLlqUsciIVsNWFPWI%3D&reserved=0<https://my.ripe.net/#/account-details>. Scroll down to Membership Mailing Lists to update your 'members-discuss' subscription. Having issues unsubscribing? More information about managing your subscription can be found at: https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ripe.net%2Fs%2Fmembers-discuss-subscription-options%2F&data=05%7C02%7C%7C6de2ef890c8c4377773208dea0739898%7Cd0b71c570f9b4acc923b81d0b26b55b3%7C0%7C0%7C639124615504968230%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C4000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=5F4fUr7HlX1jRiPDAQ0SpwkbsBd03m1rc0s5vVwlqIM%3D&reserved=0<https://www.ripe.net/s/members-discuss-subscription-options/>