The issue I see is that there are non-address allocation{, policy} topics that can deeply affect network operations in which ARIN has a direct role, yet network operators (outside of the normal ARIN participants) have no obvious mechanism in which to comment/discuss/etc. Examples would include reverse DNS operations, whois database-related issues (operations, schema, access methods, etc.), (potentially?) RPKI, etc. It doesn't seem appropriate to me for these to be discussed in relation to addressing policy nor are the issues associated with those examples necessarily related to address allocation, hence I wouldn't think they'd be fodder for ppml.
please $deity no. one difference in north america from the other 'regions' is that there is a strong and very separate operator community and forum. this does not really exist in the other regions. ripe ate the eof years ago. apops is dormant aside from helping with apricot. afnog has been strong, but is fading except for the once a year workshops. enredo may be reborn, but we have yet to see. observe that the main north american irr, radb, is not run by the rir, unlike in other regions. and i like that there are a number of diverse rir services in the region. it's healthy. so i would be perfectly happy if arin discussed operational matters here on nanog with the rest of us ops. i would not be pleased to see ops start to be subsumed by the rir here. randy