Hi Alex,
Currently, tickets are being signed by a very old server, running an unsupported legacy OS and GNUPG1. In the beginning of the year, we tried phasing this server out and handle signing from one of our standard platforms running GNUPG2. That box signs emails very well, however our legacy ticketing refuses to play nice with it. We spent many, many hours on getting it our ticketing system to behave, but to no avail. The result was that we rolled back to the old solution, followed by this announcement:
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail/archives/ncc-services-wg/2013-January/001968.h...
The proposal to discontinue ticket signing would be a temporary measure to allow an easier transition. That's all we're asking for.
Ah, you should have said so. Transitions and migrations are always difficult. I have no problem when it is just a temporary interruption.
After we have migrated to a new platform, of course we can re-install the signing of e-mails if this is desired by the Community. Some of you have asked for a time indication for this transition period, but that is very hard to predict at this time as we have yet to decide on a new ticketing system and implementation plan.
That is a bit unfortunate. Please keep us informed about progress, to avoid any more unnecessary surprises :-) And maybe we need a discussion on whether PGP signing is the appropriate tool for the requirements. I have the feeling that not many people check the signatures. But that is a different discussion. Thank you for providing some transparency here and explaining the rough roadmap. Keep doing that in the future :-) Cheers, Sander