Proposals

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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 StyleGuidelines, MusicBrainz development, and the general culture of the project, you are welcome to subscribe to the Style mailing list and join the discussions. Also see the history of the Style Council.

Process for Idea Champions

  1. Come up with an idea for something new or something that should be changed. While somewhat out of date, the points raised on this former checklist for style changes are still worth consideration as part of your proposal.
  2. 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=
}}
  1. 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.
  2. 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:
    1. The expected expiration date for the RFC.
    2. A brief summary of the proposal.
    3. A link to the proposal's wikipage.
    4. Links to any previous discussion (IRC, style list, users list, forums, etc) which led to the proposal.
  3. 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.
  4. 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:
    1. The expected passage date for the RFV.
    2. A brief summary of the proposal, including a summary of any changes which have been made since the RFC.
    3. A link to the proposal's wikipage.
  5. 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.
  6. 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

Style Elder

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 StyleIssues. If the process goes off the rails, or if someone disputes the style leaders' decisions, the elder steps in.

Special Procedures

Cover Art Relationship Type, Has Lyrics At Relationship Type, and Has Score At Relationship Type each only allow links to whitelisted sites. To add any site to the whitelist for any one of these advanced relationships, the following additional procedure must be followed.

  1. Add the site to the list on the relevant page for the AR.
  2. Using the normal proposal process, send a RFC requesting the addition of the site.
    • The RFC should be limited to covering only 1 site.
    • Rhe RFC must provide rationale and evidence for why the site can reasonably be believed to have permission to contain the content to which we would be linking.
  3. The Style Council will then make sure that the site itself is legal; that it has a right/license/whatever to store the content (lyrics/scores/cover art) which which the relationships would be link.
    • If any situation arises where "legal" is questionable depending on local laws, MusicBrainz is based in California, so US/California law wins.
  4. Once the RFV has passed, permission must be obtained, in writing (email is fine), from the site which would be added to the whitelist.
    • This permission may be requested prior to the passage of the RFV.

Only when permission has been received and a RFV has passed may the site be added as a whitelisted site for the applicable relationship type(s).

Current Proposals

Next New Proposal Number

Next new proposal number: 103

March 2010 Proposal Cleanup

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

RFC-1

AudioBook Style New guideline 2147 Abandoned

RFC-7: Capitalization Standard Spanish

RFC-7

Capitalization Standard Spanish Toni Panadès (t0n3t) and reosarevok New guideline 5635 RFC RFC 2010-03-05 2010-03-12 2010-03-14

RFC-8: Capitalization Standard Swedish

RFC-8

Capitalization Standard Swedish ? New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-9: Capitalization Standard Turkish

RFC-9

Capitalization Standard Turkish Yasar Suleyman Kocak New guideline In development

RFC-10: Capitalization Standard Vietnamese (alternate)

RFC-10

Capitalization Standard Vietnamese (alternate) jesus2099 New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-19: Game Soundtrack Style

RFC-19

Game Soundtrack Style BrianFreud New guideline 2146 Discussion

RFC-20: Instrumental Style

RFC-20

Instrumental Style ETI style for instrumental tracks 2142 Inactive original RFC 2006-04-20 ? ?

RFC-25: Medley Style

RFC-25

Medley Style ? New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-27: Multi-Track Movement Style

RFC-27

Multi-Track Movement Style ? New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-28: Musical Soundtrack Style

RFC-28

Musical Soundtrack Style BrianFreud New guideline 2146 Discussion Related thread

RFC-42: Release Artist Style

RFC-42

Release Artist Style navap New guideline 2143 Abandoned?

RFC-43: Release Country Style

RFC-43

Release Country Style (additional page) Jacobbrett Release events 2145 Discussion

RFC-46: Release Region Style

RFC-46

Release Region Style ? New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-47: Release Title

RFC-47

Release Title BrianFreud New guideline RFC RFC 2010-03-06 2010-03-13 2010-03-15

RFC-53: Soundtrack Style

RFC-53

Soundtrack Style BrianFreud New guideline 2146 Discussion

RFC-54: Soundtrack Title Style

RFC-54

Soundtrack Title Style BrianFreud New guideline 2146 Discussion

RFC-61: Track Title Style

RFC-61

Track Title Style warp Naming of track titles ? Abandoned?

RFC-62: Untitled Release Style

RFC-62

Untitled Release Style Bogdanb? New guideline ? Abandoned?

RFC-64: Release Event Style

RFC-64

Release Event Style Jacobbrett Release events ? Discussion

RFC-66: User Tags Standards

RFC-66

User Tags Standards ? New guideline, folksonomy ? Abandoned?

RFC-67: Revised Classical Style Guide (aka CSGv2)

RFC-67

Revised Classical Style Guide (aka CSGv2) BrianFreud Rewrites all of CSG 4426 RFC, On hold pending NGS release RFC 2009-02-15

RFC-82: Part Number Style rewrite

RFC-82

Part Number Style rewrite BrianFreud Part Number Style 5066 On hold pending RFC-61

RFC-101: Capitalization Standard Catalan

RFC-101

Capitalization Standard Catalan Toni Panadès (t0n3t) New guideline None RFC RFC 2010-03-05 2010-03-12 2010-03-14

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

RFC-2

Has Score At relationship mbuser838171846981 New release-URL AR
New track-URL AR
5634 Passed, to be implemented RFC 2010-02-20 RFV 2010-03-01 2010-03-03

RFC-4: Redesign of the Vocal Relationship Attribute

RFC-4

Redesign of the Vocal Relationship Attribute ? AR modification 1140 Discussion

RFC-18: Engineer Relationship Type

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, see RFC-91 ? 2007-05-22 RFV RFV 2008-02-01 2008-03-02

RFC-21: Linking Different Artist Names

RFC-21

Linking Different Artist Names ? ? ? Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-26: Miscellaneous Production Relationship Type/Artwork

RFC-26

Miscellaneous Production Relationship Type/Artwork ? ? ? Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-29: Narrator Relationship Type

RFC-29

Narrator Relationship Type ? New vocal role 1368 Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-35: Part Of Series Relationship Type

RFC-35

Part Of Series Relationship Type voiceinsideyou New release-release, or RG-RG, AR ? Discussion

RFC-39: Reader Relationship Type

RFC-39

Reader Relationship Type ? New vocal role 1370 Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-52: Single From Album Relationship Type

RFC-52

Single From Album Relationship Type ? New release-release AR ? Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-55: Speaker Relationship Type

RFC-55

Speaker Relationship Type ? New vocal role 1731 Abandoned? ? ? ? ?

RFC-68: Add Has News Coverage AR

RFC-68

Add Has News Coverage AR ruoak New release-URL AR 5636 RFC RFC 2010-02-28 2010-03-07 2010-03-09

RFC-69: Defining instruments and vocals for members of bands

RFC-69

Defining instruments and vocals for members of bands ? Artist-artist AR enhancement 1141 Abandoned?

RFC-70: Add attribute 'translated' to Lyricist Relationship Type

RFC-70

Add attribute 'translated' to Lyricist Relationship Type (related attribute page) zout Artist-Track and Artist-Release AR enhancement 4424 RFV RFC3 RFC4 2010-02-27 RFV 2010-03-06 2010-03-08

RFC-74: "Sampled speech" as AR for tracks

RFC-74

"Sampled speech" as AR for tracks ? ? 3032 Abandoned?

RFC-82: Resolve FoundingMemberDatesQuestion

RFC-82

Resolve FoundingMemberDatesQuestion BrianFreud artist-artist AR 1009 RFC RFC 2010-03-01 2010-03-08 2010-03-10

RFC-83: Add track-url Wikipedia AR

RFC-83

Add track-url Wikipedia AR BrianFreud New track-URL AR 3852 In development

RFC-84: Add 'provides discographic information about' AR

RFC-84

Add 'provides discographic information about' AR BrianFreud New track-URL AR 3734 In development

RFC-85: Adding vocal attribute to Arranger AR

RFC-85

Adding vocal attribute to Arranger AR Chris B New artist-release AR
New artist-track AR
3564 MBS-488 Passed, Waiting for implementation RFV 2008-01-08 2008-01-??

RFC-86: Add Release-Track Relationship for pre-gap tracks

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

RFC-87

Add 'is a project of' AR ? New artist-artist AR 882, #s 3 and 4 Abandoned?

RFC-88: Add microblog/Twitter AR

RFC-88

Add microblog/Twitter AR Andrew John Hughes New artist-URL AR
New label-URL AR
5330 Abandoned?

RFC-89: Add Facebook AR

RFC-89

Add Facebook AR Andrew John Hughes New artist-URL AR
New label-URL AR
5329 Abandoned?

RFC-90: Has Lyrics At Extension

RFC-90

Has Lyrics At Extension BrianFreud New artist-URL AR 5637 RFC RFC 2010-02-28 2010-03-07 2010-03-09

RFC-91: Fix Production Relationship Class

RFC-91

Fix Production Relationship Class (aka: convert the current Miscellaneous Production and Engineer Relationship Types to Relationship Classes, fix/implement the unimplemented but already-passed specific Engineer Relationship types, and fix Programming Relationship Type) BrianFreud Fixes problems within Production Relationship Class, also implements RFC-18 and RFC-85 RFC RFC 2010-02-28 2010-03-07 2010-03-09

RFC-92: Create three new AR Classes, remove 3 existing AR Classes, move Affiliate RC, merge 2 existing AR Types

RFC-92

Create three new AR Classes, remove 3 existing AR Classes, move Affiliate RC, merge 2 existing AR Types BrianFreud Reorganization of 4 Relationship Classes, merge 2 Relationship Types RFC RFC 2010-02-28 2010-03-07 2010-03-09

RFC-94: Decommission Label Relationship Class

RFC-94

Decommission Label Relationship Class BrianFreud Removes 1 Relationship Class RFC RFC 2010-03-01 2010-03-08 2010-03-10

RFC-95: Add Live Journal

RFC-95

Add Live Journal ? New artist-URL AR Abandoned?

RFC-96: AR documentation cleanup

RFC-96

AR documentation cleanup BrianFreud AR documentation cleanup RFC RFC 2010-03-01 2010-03-08 2010-03-10

RFC-97: Expanded Samples Relationship Type

RFC-97

Expanded Samples Relationship Type ? AR enhancement Abandoned?

RFC-98: Allow Instrument Attribute for Members of a Band

RFC-98

Allow Instrument Attribute for Members of a Band ? AR enhancement Abandoned?

RFC-102: Add attribute 'translated' to Librettist Relationship Type

RFC-102

Add attribute 'translated' to Librettist Relationship Type (related attribute page) BrianFreud AR enhancement RFC RFC 2010-03-06 2010-03-13 2010-03-15

RFC-103: Add Changed Name To AR

RFC-103

Add Changed Name To AR New artist-artist AR Discussion died (this RFC has been independently attempted multiple times) one RFC, one RFC, others 2007-05, 2008-02-09, others

RFC-104: Expansion of the Librettist Relationship Type

RFC-104

Expansion of the Librettist Relationship Type BrianFreud New track-artist AR Discussion RFC 2008-02-09

RFC-106: Conductor AR Changes

RFC-106

Conductor AR Changes Conductor and Chorus Master Relationship Types modification Abandoned? RFC 2007-05-03

Other Proposals

RFC # Title & Wikipage Champion Affects Trac ticket Status RFC RFC Date RFV RFV Date Passage Date

RFC-3: Advanced Entity

RFC-3

Advanced Entity ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-5: Album Rework

RFC-5

Album Rework ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-6: Artist Type Project

RFC-6

Artist Type Project ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-11: Change Default Data Quality Proposal

RFC-11

Change Default Data Quality Proposal (Data) BrianFreud Voting, Quality, and Edit expiration On hold until post-NGS, when edit/voting system is given specific attention RFC 2007-06-19

RFC-15: Disentangle Interfaces From Schema

RFC-15

Disentangle Interfaces From Schema ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-16: Display Inheritance

RFC-16

Display Inheritance ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-17: Distributed MusicBrainz

RFC-17

Distributed MusicBrainz ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-24: Location Proposal

RFC-24

Location Proposal BrianFreud New entity In development, Post-NGS

RFC-30: Add Descarga cat #s field

RFC-30

Add Descarga cat #s field ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-31: Subscribe to release

RFC-31

Subscribe to release ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-32: Separately identify hidden tracks

RFC-32

Separately identify hidden tracks ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-33: Add support for displaying and editing related artists

RFC-33

Add support for displaying and editing related artists ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-34: Add support to become an open source AccurateRip replacement

RFC-34

Add support to become an open source AccurateRip replacement ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-36: Performance Restructuring Proposal

RFC-36

Performance Restructuring Proposal ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-37: Performances And Recordings Proposal

RFC-37

Performances And Recordings Proposal BrianFreud New entity In development, post-NGS

RFC-40: Reason Not To Treat DVD As CD

RFC-40

Reason Not To Treat DVD As CD ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-44: Release Data Set

RFC-44

Release Data Set ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-48: Release Transliteration And Translation

RFC-48

Release Transliteration And Translation ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-49: Release Type Restructuring Proposal

RFC-49

Release Type Restructuring Proposal BrianFreud ? 1372 In development

RFC-50: Removing the clutter

RFC-50

Removing the clutter ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-57: Make a DAML+OIL ontology for music

RFC-57

Make a DAML+OIL ontology for music ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-58: Public Namespace URIs

RFC-58

Public Namespace URIs ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-59: Music Ontology (MO) project

RFC-59

Music Ontology (MO) project ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-60: Track Grouping

RFC-60

Track Grouping ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-63: Updating Subscription Mails

RFC-63

Updating Subscription Mails ? ? ? Discussion

RFC-65: Voting Motivations

RFC-65

Voting Motivations ? ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-71: NGS: Groups and Gender

RFC-71

NGS: Groups and Gender BrianFreud NGS development MBS-450 RFC RFC 2010-02-22 RFV 2010-03-08 2010-03-10

RFC-72: NGS: Alternate Genders

RFC-72

NGS: Alternate Genders BrianFreud NGS development MBS-344 RFV RFC 2010-02-22 RFV 2010-03-03 2010-03-05

RFC-75: Add release format: VHS

RFC-75

Add release format: VHS BrianFreud New release format 5605 Abandoned, see RFC-93

RFC-76: Add release format: VCD

RFC-76

Add release format: VCD BrianFreud New release format 4615 Abandoned, see RFC-93

RFC-77: Add release format: SVCD

RFC-77

Add release format: SVCD BrianFreud New release format 4615 Abandoned, see RFC-93

RFC-78: Add release format: 7" vinyl

RFC-78

Add release format: 7" vinyl Per Øyvind Øygard (Wizzcat) New release format/format+format attribute 3941 Discussion

RFC-79: Add release format: 10" vinyl

RFC-79

Add release format: 10" vinyl Per Øyvind Øygard (Wizzcat) New release format/format+format attribute 3941 Discussion

RFC-80: Add release format: 12" vinyl

RFC-80

Add release format: 12" vinyl Per Øyvind Øygard (Wizzcat) New release format/format+format attribute 3941 Discussion

RFC-81: Add release format: HDCD

RFC-81

Add release format: HDCD BrianFreud New release format 3942 Abandoned, see RFC-93

RFC-93: Add release formats: VHS, VCD, SVCD, Betamax, HDCD, USB Flash Drive, slotMusic

RFC-93

Add release formats: VHS, VCD, SVCD, Betamax, HDCD, USB Flash Drive, slotMusic BrianFreud New release formats, would close RFC-75, RFC-76, RFC-77, RFC-81, and address some unknown fields on Release Format. 5605 4615 3942 RFC RFC 2010-03-01 2010-03-08 2010-03-10

RFC-99: Also Known As

RFC-99

Also Known As ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-100: Rename Legal Name to Birth Name

RFC-100

Rename Legal Name to Birth Name ? ? Abandoned?

RFC-105: New Release Status: "Upcoming"

RFC-105

New Release Status: "Upcoming" Unreleased releases Abandoned? RFC 2007-04-14

Needed Proposals

These are guidelines, or parts of guidelines, which are known to not yet be written and/or proposed for approval.