Hi! So, this has already been posted to the blog, but for those here who don't read the blog, I'll repost:
At the MusicBrainz Summit last month in Copenhagen, one of the topics to be discussed was the state of the style guidelines and style process. One thing those present agreed on was that the process was in need of reform, for several reasons: the complexity of the process, inconsistency with other processes in the project, the high level of individual commitment required to make changes, long-running discussions without conclusion or followthrough, and ultimately the state of the final product, the style guidelines themselves. The inaccessibility of our existing process meant that many users, both new and old, avoided the style process, and this hurts the project: style is part of what makes MusicBrainz what it is, and low participation means our guidelines have grown both internally inconsistent and out of sync with community practice. Nor is the style process a new problem for MusicBrainz: historically, it’s changed several times and some past style leaders have vanished into thin air. After all, it is a hard job, for a volunteer, to convince many voices to come to a consensus. To improve upon these issues, we’ve decided to make two major changes. First: to designate our JIRA issue tracker at tickets.musicbrainz.org as the central coordination point for style issues. This way, any issue, be it style-related or code-related, is reported and discussed in the same place (and should an issue be misfiled, it’s easily corrected). The issue tracker can also collect links to other discussions, in edit notes, the forums, IRC, etc., and store links to related issues such as features in need of implementation. Second: to promote our current Style Leader to Style Benevolent Dictator For Life (Style BDFL). Nicolás Tamargo (reosarevok) will then be in charge of considering tickets and implementing changes in the style guidelines. This change shifts the burden of evaluating style issues from the community to our newly appointed BDFL. For simple changes and for simple improvements to consistency and writing style, the BDFL can change things directly, without need for lengthy discussion. Of course, his work won’t happen in a vacuum: for changes that are complex or contentious, the role of the BDFL will be to gather feedback and determine the next steps before making changes. To this end, he may occasionally call for a non-binding vote on a particular topic, to collect a snapshot of community opinion to augment existing discussion, all in order to make a better informed decision. We hope that this new process will make contribution to the creation of style guidelines easier and less onerous a commitment for everyone, and that the resulting style guidelines will be more up-to-date, more consistent, and more clearly written and organized. To test it out, we’re going to try this process for 6 months, and then review how things have progressed and if the process needs further tweaking or even complete replacement. tl;dr: Style system has changed, new info at http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Proposals
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