Style Council: Difference between revisions
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Until 2014, the '''style council''' was the institution in [[MusicBrainz]] that created and edited the [[Style|official style guideline]]s, by following the [[Proposals|proposal system]]. The style council has been reformed many times, as it did not work well initially. See the [[History:Style Council/History|history of the council]] for details. In October, 2014 it was replaced with a Style Benevolent Dictator<sup>1</sup>. |
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=The MusicBrainz Style Council= |
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The '''Style Council''' is the institution in [[MusicBrainz]] that creates and edits the [[Official Style Guideline|OfficialStyleGuideline]]<code><nowiki></nowiki></code>s. The Style Council is currently being restructured, since it did not work very well. |
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==Membership== |
==Membership== |
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There |
There was no formal membership to the style council. If you were an interested contributor to [[MusicBrainz]] and reasonably well informed about existing [[Style|style guidelines]], [[MusicBrainz Development|MusicBrainz development]] and the general culture of the project, you were welcome to subscribe to the [[Mailing Lists|style mailing list]] and join the discussions. |
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The Style Council has two formal members: <dl><dt>An Elder |
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<dd> |
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[[User:RobertKaye|RobertKaye]] is the Elder and benevolent dictator of [[MusicBrainz]] [[Style Issue|StyleIssue]]<code><nowiki></nowiki></code>s. If the council cannot reach consensus he will make a decision. |
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<dt>A Secretary |
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<dd> |
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The Secretry is the Elder's right hand. He does the non-controversial daily work, but cannot make actual rulings. This is a rotating position currenly filled by [[User:DonRedman|DonRedman]]. Who wanted to step off in April 2006 but is still secretary. |
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</dl> |
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==How the Style Council Works== |
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# Present your issue and the changes you propose to the [[Style Mailing List|StyleMailingList]] in a new thread. |
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# Let there be a discussion, see if consensus emerges, or pick up those changes that make sense to you. |
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# Once the discussion has ebed out, or stopped from being productive, reformulate your changes and request a veto. The veto should include a ''short'' note pointing to the past discussion and a relatively ''specific description of your proposal''. |
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# If no veto was cast within 48 hours, go ahead and make your changes. |
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If somebody has cast a veto, the issue gets presented to the elder, who will have to make a decision. The question, when it is sensible to cast a veto and when not is a difficult one. If you are new to the council, you should take part in the normal discusions for a month or two. Then you should get a feel for when a veto is sensible. |
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If you propose a '''''very'' minor change''', you can skip steps 1 to 3 and request a veto right away. In this case you must include a short note saying that you skipped the request for comments. This means that anybody can veto if they think a detailed discussion is necessary. Similarly you should extend the veto period if the discussion takes longer than two days. |
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---- |
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==Some more detailed thoughts== |
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<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">'''Status:''' ''The following still has to be updated. It offers some details which are valuable. But if you are in doubt, follow the descriptions above'' |
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Decisions about style issues are made by the community on mb-style. That community has no formal organization. We can still call it the StyleCouncil, though. |
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If you want a [[Style Issue|StyleIssue]] to be fixed, do the work yourself. |
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</ul> |
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Now at this point things get tricky. There is no working practice yet, so you'll have to experiment a bit. [[User:DonRedman|DonRedman]] described ''how it could work'' in [http://www.nabble.com/-mb-style-State-of-the-Style-Secretary-t1068709c2885.html#a2813225 this thread]: |
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<ul><li style="list-style-type:none">Someone wants a [[Style Issue|StyleIssue]] fixed. She<ref>Today our example person is female. That is balancing sexism :-) .</ref> is prepared to put in some work to get things right. So she implements a solution on test or the wiki, proposes it to the [[Style Mailing List|StyleMailingList]], and requests _comments_. Ideally people join into a productive debate about how to enhance the change. People might also bring forth arguments against this change. The proposer can change her proposal to meet these arguments as much as _she_ wants. In a final stage she might want to call for [[Beta Editing|BetaEditing]] on the [[Users Mailing List|UsersMailingList]]. This only applies to big or highly disputed changes. Here the practice of using (testing) the solution should show whether it is good. When she thinks she has done enough, she sends a 'request for veto' to the [[Style Mailing List|StyleMailingList]]. A veto must match the amount of productive work she has put into the change. Therefore a veto is only likely to occur if someone sees a severe problem, or if the proposer has worked on her proposal only sluggishly. If there really is dispute, the point of dissensus should be really clear by now. It will probably be a general/philosophical point. Robert should be able to make a well informed decision that everyone will have to accept. |
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</ul> |
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By now it has become clear that it makes sense to issue a [[Request For Comment|RequestForComment]] first, wait for a week or two, and then issue a [[Request For Veto|RequestForVeto]]. You should also wait 48 hours for a veto. |
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== |
==References== |
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1. http://blog.musicbrainz.org/2014/10/17/changes-to-our-style-process/ |
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[[Category:Style]] |
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The Style Council had a lot of other protocols and processes that preceeded this one. They did not work that well, but since they offer some helpful insight about ''how things do not work in the [[MusicBrainz]] community'', they are kept in the [[History Of The Style Council|HistoryOfTheStyleCouncil]]. |
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[[Category:To Be Reviewed]] [[Category:Style]] |
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Latest revision as of 20:17, 30 April 2015
Until 2014, the style council was the institution in MusicBrainz that created and edited the official style guidelines, by following the proposal system. The style council has been reformed many times, as it did not work well initially. See the history of the council for details. In October, 2014 it was replaced with a Style Benevolent Dictator1.
Membership
There was no formal membership to the style council. If you were an interested contributor to MusicBrainz and reasonably well informed about existing style guidelines, MusicBrainz development and the general culture of the project, you were welcome to subscribe to the style mailing list and join the discussions.
References
1. http://blog.musicbrainz.org/2014/10/17/changes-to-our-style-process/
