[Bug 12029] Define a process for "particularly exceptional circumstances"

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=12029

--- Comment #9 from Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com> 2011-02-17 11:31:33 UTC ---
To address this bug, I propose language something like the following, to be
added in a new "Last Call" section of the decision policy document. This is
just a rough take, it probably needs to be cleaned up to be generic to any WG
draft.

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As we move through W3C maturity levels, the process requires gradually locking
down the spec. In particular:

* If substantial technical changes are made after a Last Call Working Draft,
then the Working Group cannot proceed to Candidate Recommendation and must
publish another LCWD. While it is not entirely clear what kinds of changes are
substantial enough, it seems like feature additions, or for that matter feature
removals, probably are.

* During Candidate Recommendation, if anything beyond very minor technical
changes are made, other than dropping features marked "at risk", then the WG
cannot proceed to Proposed Recommendation and must return to Working Draft
status.

Given these rules, it seems wise to be careful about anything that is even
arguably a feature addition - even arguably ambiguous cases such as documenting
longstanding de facto standard features.

Thus, the Chairs propose that during the current pre-LC period, and during Last
Call, feature additions or removals should only be done with sufficient prior
notice to the group, in the form of a bug. We are not making bug filing
mandatory for editorial changes or even technical changes that correct an
error. We're also not trying to put any constraint on the WHATWG HTML draft.
>From the W3C HTML WG point of view, it is reasonable to add a feature to WHATWG
HTML but then not propose it for inclusion in W3C HTML5 at all, if it is not
ready to go through a stabilization cycle. It is also ok to put such features
in other drafts. However, in order to fulfill process requirements, we can't
have features freely added to the W3C draft without sufficient advance notice.

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Received on Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:31:36 UTC