Proposals
Proposals
Changes to MusicBrainz are agreed to using this proposal process.
The process is simple. Someone has an idea, either for something new, or for a change to how something existing is done. After discussion of the idea has taken place, one person takes control of the idea. This person is then known as the Idea Champion for that proposal. The Idea Champion has the responsibility for moving the idea from a vague concept to a clear proposal, then working for Style Council passage of the proposal.
Though it is somewhat dated, Turning Your Ideas into Reality is well worth a read.
Definitions
- Idea Champion
- The person who currently is handling a proposal.
- Style Council
- Any members of the Style mailing list who wish to take part in discussion of a proposal. There is no formal membership to the style council. If you are an interested contributor to MusicBrainz and reasonably well informed about existing StyleGuideline
s, MusicBrainzDevelopment, and the general culture of the project, you are welcome to subscribe to the StyleMailingList and join the discussions.
Process for Idea Champions
- Come up with an idea for something new or something that should be changed.
- Create a new wikipage for the proposal. This should be located at http://wiki.musicbrainz.org/User:(you)/(proposal name) and assigned the most relevant of [[Category:Proposal]] [[Category:Proposed Style]] or [[Category:Proposed Advanced Relationship Type]].
- The proposal template should be at the top of the page:
{{Template:proposal |proposal= |discussion= |champion= |rfc= |rfv= |status= |ar= |style= |trac= }}
- proposal, rfc, rfv, status: Leave these blank
- discussion: A link to the initial discussion (IRC, forums, or style list) of an idea.
- champion: You.
- ar: If your proposal changes or adds an Advanced Relationship, then "true", otherwise leave the value blank.
- style: If your proposal changes or adds a style guideline, then "true", otherwise leave the value blank.
- trac: The trac ticket number for your proposal.
- Send an RFC announcement to the style list.
- The RFC should have "RFC:" at the beginning of the subject line.
- The body of the email should contain:
- The expected expiration date for the RFC.
- A brief summary of the proposal.
- A link to the proposal's wikipage.
- Links to any previous discussion (IRC, style list, users list, forums, etc) which led to the proposal.
- During the period where the RFC is active, discussion of it will occur on the style list.
- Anyone can change the proposal's wikipage, though it is encouraged that any changes which go beyond minor formatting, spelling, or example changes should be left to the Idea Champion.
- If you are not the Idea Champion, and you have sufficient disagreement with the proposal that you feel an entirely different proposal needs to be created, a new proposal wikipage should be created, for which you would become that proposal's Idea Champion. Do not rewrite the original proposal wikipage and attempt to take over the idea from the original Idea Champion!
- Where there is disagreement, the Idea Champion should work to find consensus.
- On minor points, the Idea Champion maintains control of the proposal. However, for the Idea Champion, you ignore dissent at the risk of the proposal - disagreement can easily become vetos during the RFV period.
- If discussion on an RFC is still ongoing, and there is not yet agreement that the proposal is ready to pass, the RFC period may be extended. The RFC period only defines a minimum, not a maximum, time period for debate.
- When the RFC's initial period has expired, the Idea Champion (or a Style Leader) will send out an RFV for the proposal.
- The RFV email should have "RFV:" at the beginning of the subject line.
- The body of the email should contain:
- The expected passage date for the RFV.
- A brief summary of the proposal, including a summary of any changes which have been made since the RFC.
- A link to the proposal's wikipage.
- During the RFV period, any member of the style council may veto the RFV. However, vetos must have merit (no vetos simply because "I don't like this proposal"). Vetos must be publicly cast, on the style list, and should detail what problems are believed to remain in the RFV, and what changes could be made such that the veto would be cleared. These suggested changes must be reasonable; if the changes would entail a rewrite, or rethink, of the proposal itself, then a counter-proposal wikipage should be created, and the decision as to which proposal will pass should be left to the style council.
- If an RFV receives a veto, the proposal reverts to an RFC. There is no minimum time period at this point, but no new RFV should be attempted until the problems raised in any vetos have been discussed and/or addressed. A proposal may revert to an RFC, or have replacement RFCs sent, as many times as is needed.
- If the end of the RFV period is reached, and no vetos have been cast, then the proposal has passed. The Idea Champion is now responsible for ensuring that the changes described by the proposal are enacted (changing wiki pages, entering edits, creating trac or jira tickets, etc.). This includes remembering to remove the proposal template from the proposal's wikipage!
Time Periods
- RFC: 7 days
- RFV: 2 days
Style Leaders
- BrianFreud
- warp, aka kuno
Style Elder
- ruaok, aka RobertKaye
Definitions
- RFC (Request for Change)
- The initial discussion period for any proposal
- RFV (Request for Veto)
- The decision period for any proposal
- Style Leader
- They guide the process and keep it from getting stuck. If the council cannot reach consensus they will make a decision. This position was previously called "secretary".
- Style Elder
- The benevolent dictator of MusicBrainz StyleIssue
s. If the process goes off the rails, or if someone disputes the style leaders' decisions, the elder steps in.
Current Proposals
Next new proposal number: 90
NOTE: Effective March 24, 2010, any proposal which has no Champion will be closed, including any associated proposal pages and trac tickets! If you do not want to see one of these proposals die, then adopt it today, then make it happen!
Style Proposals
RFC # | Title & Wikipage | Champion | Affects | Trac ticket | Status | RFC | RFC Date | RFV | RFV Date | Passage Date |
RFC-1 | AudioBook Style | None | Audiobooks | 2147 | Inactive | |||||
RFC-7 | Capitalization Standard Spanish | Toni Panadès and reosarevok | New guideline | 5635 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-8 | Capitalization Standard Swedish | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-9 | Capitalization Standard Turkish | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-10 | Capitalization Standard Vietnamese | jesus2099 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-19 | Game Soundtrack Style | BrianFreud | New guideline | 2146 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-20 | Instrumental Style | ETI style for instrumental tracks | 2142 | Inactive | original RFC | 2006-04-20 | ? | ? | ||
RFC-22 | Live Bootleg Style | BrianFreud | Replacement for Untitled Bootleg Style | 1053 | RFC | RFC | 2010-02-22 | 2010-03-01 | 2010-03-03 | |
RFC-23 | Live Track Style | BrianFreud | Replacement for Untitled Bootleg Style | 2141 | RFC | RFC | 2010-02-22 | 2010-03-01 | 2010-03-03 | |
RFC-25 | Medley Style | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-27 | Multi-Track Movement Style | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-28 | Musical Soundtrack Style | BrianFreud | New guideline | 2146 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-42 | Release Artist Style | ? | ? | 2143 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-43 | Release Country Style (additional page) | Jacobbrett | Release events | 2145 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-45 | Release Event Style | Jacobbrett | Release events | 2145 | Discussion | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-46 | Release Region Style | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-47 | Release Title | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-53 | Soundtrack Style | BrianFreud | New guideline | 2146 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-54 | Soundtrack Title Style | BrianFreud | New guideline | 2146 | Discussion | |||||
RFC-61 | Track Title Style | warp | Naming of track titles | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-62 | Untitled Release Style | Bogdanb? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-64 | Release Event Style | Jacobbrett | Release events | ? | Discussion | |||||
RFC-66 | User Tags Standards | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-67 | Revised Classical Style Guide | BrianFreud | Rewrites all of CSG | 4426 | RFC, On hold pending NGS release | RFC | 2009-02-15 | |||
RFC-82 | Part Number Style rewrite | BrianFreud | Part Number Style | 5066 | On hold pending warp's track title style rewrite |
Advanced Relationship Proposals
RFC # | Title & Wikipage | Champion | Affects | Trac ticket | Status | RFC | RFC Date | RFV | RFV Date | Passage Date |
RFC-2 | Has Score At relationship | mbuser838171846981 | New release-URL AR New track-URL AR |
5634 | RFC | RFC | 2010-02-20 | |||
RFC-4 | Redesign of the Vocal Relationship Attribute | AR modification | 1140 | Discussion | ||||||
RFC-18 | Engineer Relationship Type | Chris B | New artist-release AR New artist-track AR |
3565 | Passed but needs server support for 3-element ARs | 2007-05-22 | RFV RFV | 2008-02-01 | 2008-03-02 | |
RFC-21 | Linking Different Artist Names | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-26 | Miscellaneous Production Relationship Type/Artwork | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-29 | Narrator Relationship Type | ? | ? | 1368 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-35 | Part Of Series Relationship Type | voiceinsideyou | New release-release, or RG-RG, AR | ? | Discussion | |||||
RFC-39 | Reader Relationship Type | ? | ? | 1370 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-52 | Single From Album Relationship Type | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-55 | Speaker Relationship Type | ? | ? | 1731 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-68 | Add Has Press Coverage AR | ruoak | New release-URL AR | ? | Waiting for wikipage to be created | |||||
RFC-69 | Defining instruments and vocals for members of bands | ? | Artist-artist AR enhancement | 1141 | ? | |||||
RFC-70 | add attribute 'translated' to Lyricist Relationship Type | Jan van Thiel | Artist-artist AR enhancement | 4424 | Needs wikipage; will be closed as abandoned on 2010-03-10 | RFC | 2009-04-14 | |||
RFC-73 | Redesign of the VocalRelationshipAttribute | ? | AR modification | 1140 | ? | |||||
RFC-74 | "Sampled speech" as AR for tracks | ? | ? | 3032 | Needs wikipage, ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-82 | Resolve FoundingMemberDatesQuestion | ? | artist-artist AR | 1009 | ? | |||||
RFC-83 | Add track-url Wikipedia AR | BrianFreud | New track-URL AR | 3852 | ||||||
RFC-84 | Add 'provides discographic information about' AR | BrianFreud | New track-URL AR | 3734 | ||||||
RFC-85 | Adding vocal attribute to Arranger AR | Chris B | New artist-release AR New artist-track AR |
3564 | Passed but needs server support for 3-element ARs | RFV | 2008-01-08 | 2008-01-?? | ||
RFC-86 | Add Release-Track Relationship for pre-gap tracks | ? | New track-release AR | 4235 | On hold until after NGS is released | |||||
RFC-87 | Add 'is a project of' AR | ? | New artist-artist AR | 882, #s 3 and 4 | ? | |||||
RFC-88 | Add microblog/Twitter AR | Andrew John Hughes | New artist-URL AR New label-URL AR |
5330 | ? | |||||
RFC-89 | Add Facebook AR | Andrew John Hughes | New artist-URL AR New label-URL AR |
5329 | ? |
Other Proposals
RFC # | Title & Wikipage | Champion | Affects | Trac ticket | Status | RFC | RFC Date | RFV | RFV Date | Passage Date |
RFC-3 | Advanced Entity | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-5 | Album Rework | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-6 | Artist Type Project | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-11 | Change Default Data Quality Proposal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-15 | Disentangle Interfaces From Schema | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-16 | Display Inheritance | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-17 | Distributed MusicBrainz | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-24 | Location Proposal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-30 | Add Descarga cat #s field | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-31 | Subscribe to release | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-32 | Separately identify hidden tracks | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-33 | Add support for displaying and editing related artists | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-34 | Add support to become an open source AccurateRip replacement | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-36 | Performance Restructuring Proposal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-37 | Performances And Recordings Proposal | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-40 | Reason Not To Treat DVD As CD | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-44 | Release Data Set | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-48 | Release Transliteration And Translation | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-49 | Release Type Restructuring Proposal | ? | ? | 1372 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-50 | Removing the clutter | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-51 | Set Track Times From Disc ID | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-57 | Make a DAML+OIL ontology for music | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-58 | Public Namespace URIs | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-59 | Music Ontology (MO) project | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-60 | Track Grouping | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-63 | Updating Subscription Mails | ? | ? | ? | Discussion | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-65 | Voting Motivations | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-71 | NGS: Groups and Gender | BrianFreud | NGS development | Discussion | ||||||
RFC-72 | NGS: Alternate Genders | BrianFreud | NGS development | RFC | RFC | 2010-02-22 | 2010-03-01 | 2010-03-03 | ||
RFC-75 | Add release format: VHS | ? | ? | 5605 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-76 | Add release format: VCD | ? | ? | 4615 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-77 | Add release format: SVCD | ? | ? | 4615 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-78 | Add release format: 7" vinyl | ? | ? | 3941 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-79 | Add release format: 10" vinyl | ? | ? | 3941 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-80 | Add release format: 12" vinyl | ? | ? | 3941 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | |
RFC-81 | Add release format: HDCD | ? | ? | 3942 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |