14:53:28 RRSAgent has joined #w3process 14:53:28 logging to https://www.w3.org/2021/02/24-w3process-irc 14:53:29 inviting RRSAgent 14:53:30 RRSAgent, make logs Public 14:53:32 Meeting: Revising W3C Process Community Group 14:53:46 present+ dsinger 15:00:18 plh has joined #w3process 15:00:24 present+ 15:03:27 ScribeNick: fantasai 15:03:55 dsinger: Forgot to include recording meetings in section ?? 15:04:06 s/??/3/ 15:04:24 Topic: Tooling Policy 15:04:27 present+ 15:04:42 dsinger: CFCs out to the AB, making various comments on policy. Trying to get agreement in principle 15:04:51 dsinger: Question about MUST vs SHOULD 15:04:52 q+ 15:05:16 jeff has joined #w3process 15:05:22 present+ 15:05:24 ack plh 15:05:27 present+ 15:05:44 plh: One reason for SHOULD is we don't know how it will be received from WG and how much work to make it happen 15:05:51 plh: For some WGs, not very simple to move over 15:06:02 plh: Need to collect data from Team Contact, and I'm working on a questionnaire on that 15:06:20 plh: This has side-effect of making Team look more closely at the guidelines 15:06:29 ack fant 15:06:34 dsinger: Would be good to hear about the hard cases 15:06:58 fantasai: I agree with Jeff about mking the guidelines shoulds for now 15:07:19 fantasai: so that we can take time to get ready before making them into musts 15:07:29 q+ 15:07:33 fantasai: we'll then know what needs tweaking, etc 15:07:34 q+ 15:07:50 +1 to "should" 15:08:06 ack jeff 15:08:06 s/etc/what can be made MUST/ 15:08:07 fantasai: I think this approach avoids a lot of the problems of doing it in 2020, given that it's a lot of work for some people/grtoups 15:08:15 cwilso: fantasai and plh said what I wanted to say 15:08:31 jeff: We've had very good experience in W3C socially by instituting changes gradually 15:08:34 s/2020/2021/ 15:08:52 jeff: e.g. liberal document license, first we allowed it only if there was no dissent in the group 15:09:04 jeff: and then ppl got more comfortable with it, and started using for everything 15:09:17 florian_irc has joined #w3process 15:09:23 q? 15:09:25 jeff: I imagine a similar circumstance here. Socially-mild way to start doing it, everyone will see it's the right thing to do 15:09:27 ack dsinger 15:09:37 q+ 15:09:46 dsinger: I think transition is a poor reason to put SHOULD into the Process 15:09:55 dsinger: if there are good reasons why they shouldn't comply, then we can write a SHOULD 15:10:09 q+ 15:10:11 dsinger: but we should write what we intend, and just allow a grace period 15:10:23 dsinger: don't need misleading Process text 15:10:44 dsinger: Are there legit cases that need exceptions? 15:10:48 dsinger: then make should 15:10:56 -1. ; don't fight these battles now 15:11:05 +1 to weiler 15:11:32 Tantek 15:11:39 s/Tantek/ 15:11:43 s/Tantek// 15:11:46 q? 15:12:15 fantasai: dsinger is arguing for MUST, multiple ppl arguing for SHOULD 15:12:29 fantasai: is anyone else arguing for SHOULD? 15:12:48 dsinger: let's wait for survey 15:12:49 q? 15:13:14 Fantasai: AB has lots of discussion 15:13:24 ... David you are the only one arguing for MUST 15:13:32 ... David, can you live with SHOULD 15:13:46 David: Then we should be willing that it might be indefinite 15:13:53 ... let's not delude ourselves 15:14:06 Fantasai: I think it is fine if it is indefinite 15:14:12 ... soft powers are powerful 15:14:23 ... if Team is onboard, that's what we need 15:14:30 David: Acid test is the practice 15:14:44 Fantasai: David, you are the only dissenter to SHOULD 15:14:50 ... can you live with that? 15:14:56 David: I want to see the results of the survey 15:15:06 Fantasai: Some people think SHOULD regardless 15:15:11 David: At the moment I disagree 15:15:18 ... willing to see discussion and survey 15:15:20 q? 15:15:23 ack ws 15:15:25 ... haven't heard from the whole AB 15:15:41 wseltzer: My concern with MUST is the unintended consequences of giving new objection rights 15:16:00 ack plh 15:16:08 wseltzer: I think a SHOULD that is indeed strongly followed by the Team, as in you need a really good reason for an exception, is better 15:16:16 plh: different between MUST vs SHOULD is in how the Team applies it 15:16:31 plh: We had MUST publish every 3 months in the Process for years, and in practice WGs were reluctant to follow 15:16:40 plh: Team didn't enforce because puts WGs in limbo 15:16:47 plh: We should go with a SHOULD to make it apply 15:16:58 plh: if we want to revisit later because believe it's not propertly followed 15:17:01 plh: we can revisit then 15:17:14 dsinger: OK, let's see what comes back from the AB CFCs 15:17:16 q+ 15:17:20 ack jef 15:17:41 jeff: There were a few other points, and maybe they were minor, but for example on the ?? point where we require best practices 15:17:52 jeff: raised concern that not defined what those best practices were 15:17:59 jeff: Not that there weren't other issues raised 15:18:09 s/??/internationalization/ 15:18:10 florian: I suspect we used to [audio broken] 15:19:23 florian: We can wait for survey before diving into details 15:19:27 Topic: Separate Note Track 15:19:33 dsinger: Good support from AC, should we land it? 15:19:40 florian: Yes, two nuances 15:19:50 florian: One is bikeshedding on name of the discontinued/abandoned/draft thing 15:20:04 florian: Something like "Inactive Draft" might be more useful than the DDR term 15:20:20 florian: There's also some discussion of switching tracks other than copy-paste into a new document 15:20:28 florian: but basically suggest merging PR and then follow up on those quesitons 15:20:55 dsinger: Inactive Draft might be more useful than implying permanent abandonment 15:21:15 florian: I'd prefer "Discontinued" because existing word in Process 15:21:19 dsinger: that also work 15:21:47 q+ 15:21:53 dsinger: In absence of better ideas, we'll call them "Discontinued Draft" 15:22:05 dsinger: for discontinued REC-track documents (since they'll no longer be Notes) 15:22:19 ack jeff 15:22:51 fantasai: There's some longstanding confusion over NOTEs used for terminating REC-track work 15:23:24 jeff: Could have a document that starts on REC track and shouldn't be normative? 15:23:41 dsinger: If was intended to be a spec, but later realize don't intend to finish it, then that's a "discontinued" REC-track document 15:23:42 q+ to ask if someone has made a list of current use-cases for notes? 15:23:59 dsinger: but if it's something you want ppl to look at, but decide it should be non-normative advice, that would be a Note that's alive 15:24:03 not seeing a link here about notes 15:24:09 q? 15:24:17 ack tantek 15:24:17 tantek, you wanted to ask if someone has made a list of current use-cases for notes? 15:24:29 tantek: Definitely interested in the outcome 15:24:33 tantek: what does a Note mean? 15:24:44 tantek: has anyone started list of use cases for Notes? 15:24:58 tantek: e.g. use case document, TAG guidance, something else? 15:25:10 dsinger: plh can you give us a list? 15:25:26 plh: To look at every single one to figure out why it's a note, is it because abandoned or retired? that's a bit of work 15:25:45 lol no, no one asked for every single one 15:26:06 tantek: nothing comprehensive, just want a start on the list 15:26:13 fantasai: to be clear, we're not trying to subclass NOTEs 15:26:13 https://www.w3.org/TR/?status=note and https://www.w3.org/TR/?status=ret 15:26:30 q+ 15:26:32 fantasai: just want to pull out the use of NOTEs for abandoned work on the REC track 15:26:37 wow did we even try to list use-cases? 15:26:46 q? 15:26:52 fantasai: in order to disentangle tracks 15:26:54 is there a GitHub issue on this? 15:26:56 ack jeff 15:27:15 fantasai: ... 15:27:29 dsinger: If you have a better idea than "Discontinued Draft" for abandoned work, bring it to GH 15:27:36 is there a reason we're only clarifying that case? 15:27:42 tantek, https://github.com/w3c/w3process/issues/342 15:27:51 tantek, yes because it's the only one that ties together the tracks in a confusing way 15:27:55 q+ to note political motivations and how that'll result in folks not using discontinued draft 15:28:07 tantek, please read the issue 15:28:18 jrosewell has joined #w3process 15:28:21 q+ 15:28:24 present+ 15:28:24 reading 15:28:45 jeff: I don't care if we do sync or async, but if there are many use cases that can land in Notes and some deserve to be discontinued and some need to move to other tracks, and some still a Note, before we write Process text we have a good understanding of where we expect this to go 15:28:54 thanks for the link fantasai! 15:29:08 dsinger: we're not changing anything about Notes except giving them their own track 15:29:41 jeff: What I heard is that discontinued drafts are now called NOTEs, and in the future won't be, but could be? 15:29:56 dsinger: If WG thinks should be published for current consumption, but not normative spec, should be a NOTE 15:30:04 dsinger: and can switch tracks into NOTE 15:30:31 dsinger: But what we don't want them to do is to publish historical abandoned work as NOTEs, that is a "Discontinued Draft" and it sits on REC-track as such 15:31:08 dsinger: We're not taking any capability away, just clarifying status of such documents 15:31:10 q? 15:31:17 ack tante 15:31:17 tantek, you wanted to note political motivations and how that'll result in folks not using discontinued draft 15:31:18 jeff: OK, that makes sense. Unsure about the name 15:31:32 tantek: There's a lot of strong political motivations for labelling things a NOTE 15:31:50 tantek: I think a key dynamic to consider is, how will WGs try to use this process and be pressured one way or another 15:31:56 q? 15:31:59 ack flo 15:31:59 tantek: I think it's good to make a decision up front whether NOTE or REC 15:32:12 tantek: so that's helpful 15:32:23 dsinger: Next question is if you want to move from NOTE to REC, how do you do that? 15:32:23 q? 15:32:41 florian: Currently there's nothing preventing copy-paste from document X into a new document on the new track 15:32:47 +1 florian just copy paste as you would from anything informal to a brand new WD 15:32:55 florian: the only question is , do we want to switch track without doing such copy-paste 15:33:08 florian: Should group be able to start with WD and decide, this was a mistake, let's switch NOTE 15:33:12 florian: There's support for this 15:33:12 right, no back/forth please 15:33:21 florian: There's not really support for switching back and forth 15:33:38 florian: My suggestion is that we take the PR and then tackle that as a follow-up 15:33:58 dsinger: Concern about switching from REC to NOTE, then iterating under NOTE, and then switching back to REC 15:34:19 dsinger: So I think copy-paste is better idea for switching from NOTE to REC track 15:34:29 I think a REC-track document MUST NOT be able to terminate as a NOTE any more, that it must terminate as a REC or Discontinued Draft 15:34:30 q+ 15:34:35 ack weil 15:34:37 dsinger: So would have no transition into REC track other than from the beginning of it 15:34:53 weiler: Think about my experience editing documents (though not at W3C), some documents want to do that 15:35:03 weiler: We want to publish as not-REC now, and then ppl get interested in it later 15:35:17 weiler: as an editor not interested in rewriting what I wrote 3 yrs ago, just going to copy it i 15:35:33 weiler: ... maybe I don't understand 15:35:49 dsinger: you had someting iterating as a NOTE, and then group realizes wants normative, and should be REC 15:36:03 dsinger: You changed your mind, where do you go back onto the REC track? 15:36:12 dsinger: is there a path back onto the REC track other than at FPWD? 15:36:23 weiler: I'm not going to go start with text from 3yrs ago. 15:36:34 q? 15:36:36 dsinger: You'll start with your current text, and you'll publish as FPWD, and then go down the REC track 15:36:42 ack fant 15:37:03 Fantasai: We want to allow jump from WD or CR into Note 15:37:08 no 15:37:10 ... can we resolve on allowing that? 15:37:18 especially with the short name 15:37:38 David: Three states in Note track 15:37:40 dsinger: So NOTE track is "Draft Note", "WG-approved Note", "W3C-approved Note" 15:37:47 dsinger: not sure there's a practical problem 15:38:01 q+ to note (so to speak) about the longevity / redirection aspect 15:38:01 florian: Seems we haven't explored the question, maybe we should have some async discussion 15:38:12 florian: My suggestion is take in the PR without that part, and can only do copy-paste restart on track 15:38:19 florian: if we want something else, let's come back to that in a call or two 15:38:39 dsinger: ping chairs? 15:38:48 fantasai: I posted to ac-forum, chairs, and spec-prod already about these changes 15:38:58 dsinger: Let's make sure we don't forget any use cases 15:39:07 dsinger: Should we get agreement to pull this? 15:39:19 fantasai: I'm happy to pull and iterate once pulled 15:39:36 tantek: just realized there's a PR. I'm not going to block because haven't read yet 15:39:44 RESOLVED: Accept the PR, file issues for follow-up 15:40:00 Topic: Upgrading NOTEs to W3C-approved SOMETHINGOROTHER 15:40:14 dsinger: Current word is "Memoranda", unsure anyone loves it 15:40:20 dsinger: but we're not coming up with great alternatives 15:40:35 fantasai: Can we resolve on accepting the PR first? 15:40:45 RESOLVED: Accept the PR for Memoranda 15:40:53 what 15:41:01 s/RESOLVED: Accept the PR for Memoranda/ 15:41:05 s/RESOLVED: Accept the PR for Memoranda// 15:41:10 for the Discontinued Draft track right 15:41:19 er, termination, not track 15:41:28 Fantasai: Can we accept the PR before we bikeshed the name 15:41:43 dsinger: AFAIK the only open quesiton is the name, is there anyone with any other concern? 15:41:47 please stop asking for resolutions without links 15:41:51 seriously unacceptable 15:41:54 https://github.com/w3c/w3process/pull/489 15:42:02 dsinger: I assume ppl have the agenda on hand 15:42:07 it's worth capturing in the flow of the minutes for folks raeeading 15:42:10 dsinger: I try to write agendas with extensive cross-linking 15:42:20 s/raeeading/reading afterwards 15:42:40 florian: PR does two things, first it enables the AB and the TAG to do NOTEs as well (in addition to IGs and WGs) 15:42:58 florian: and it also enables NOTEs to be elevated to a to-be-named status with AC approval 15:43:04 +1 on Discontinued Draft 15:43:09 -1 on Memorandum 15:43:15 so I'd reject this pull request 15:43:26 q? 15:43:31 fantasai: The PR includes the commits from the previous resolution, btw 15:43:35 q? 15:43:41 dsinger: Any open questions other than the name? 15:43:46 ack tantek 15:43:46 tantek, you wanted to note (so to speak) about the longevity / redirection aspect 15:43:52 tantek: I would suggest breaking up the PR into the parts that have consensus and the ones that don't 15:44:24 florian: You want the PR merged with the name replaced by quesiton marks or what? 15:44:37 florian: I can't merge a PR describing a thing without naming the thing 15:44:58 [discussion of PR mechanics] 15:45:12 this is why #489 is confusing 15:45:22 dsinger: Seems we can agree that we can merge as soon as we conclude on a name 15:45:24 I'm opposed to another "special name" that needs explanation 15:45:39 q+ 15:45:48 Proposed names so far include: Report, Memorandum, Position, and Statement 15:45:52 I'm starting to think the entire attempt to come up with a special name is useless 15:46:06 jeff: I suggest Communiqué 15:46:25 dsinger: ... 15:46:35 +1 to merge with Statement 15:46:47 florian: I suggest "W3C Statement" and then if someone has a better name we can change it later 15:46:58 Statement seems reasonable 15:46:59 dsinger: Anyone opposed to Statement? 15:47:29 q? 15:47:33 ack jeff 15:47:37 dsinger: we want a broad name so that many things can be categorized under them 15:47:48 dsinger: so agreed on Statement as the name du jour 15:47:53 dsinger: and agreed we can execute PR, yes? 15:47:55 if it comes from the TAG it should be a TAG Position Statement 15:48:06 we're not subclassing 15:48:07 q+ to ask a question once we agree to merge 15:48:07 q? 15:48:10 ack plh 15:48:10 plh, you wanted to ask a question once we agree to merge 15:48:30 RESOLVED: Merge PR #489 with s/Memorandum/Statement/ 15:48:33 Topic: Registries 15:48:43 s/Topic: Registries/ 15:48:58 plh: To become a Statement, don't need Director's approval. Just need AC review? 15:49:16 dsinger: if community wants this as a W3C document, gets to be a Statement, FOs handled as normal, etc. 15:49:19 Topic: Registries 15:49:24 florian: We ran a survey 15:49:32 florian: A number of useful answers, and a number of confused answers 15:49:41 florian: I'm only going to speak about unconfused answers until we get clarity 15:49:51 florian: There seems to be preference for a dedicated Registry Track 15:49:58 florian: and there seems to be a preference for no distinction between CR and PR 15:50:15 florian: Third question of whethe Registry Tables should be possible to publish separate from Definition 15:50:33 florian: we got answers that need them and those opposed 15:50:39 florian: that's the interesting open question 15:51:08 florian: Anyone disagree that we have consensus on separate Registry Track with merged CR/PR phase? 15:51:54 dsinger: Anyone disagree? It makes the Process text a bit longer, but more straightforward 15:52:00 dsinger: and also you can include your registry inline into a REC eithe rway 15:52:13 RESOLVED: Separate Registry Track modeled on REC track, no CR phase 15:52:19 dsinger: open question 15:52:37 florian: There seems to be both support and discomfort with having the tables in a separate document than the definition 15:52:47 florian: My main concern is with the complexity that introduces 15:52:55 florian: we need more rules in process doc if they can be separate 15:52:57 florian: example 15:53:04 florian: we have a final, approved Registry Definition 15:53:11 florian: we have a separate publication of Tables 15:53:17 florian: everything is dne 15:53:23 florian: Then we decide we want to add a new column 15:53:40 florian: If everything were in a single document, you can mark it as a proposed change in the Registry document 15:54:03 florian: but if they're in separate documents, then can you add the new column to the Regsitry Tables document before the Registry Definition changes are approved? 15:54:08 florian: It's not clear what should happen 15:54:20 florian: The general principle is, if we have more moving parts, we have more complexity to manage 15:54:37 florian: The second thing is, separate publication is an additional feature from what we have 15:54:50 florian: My suggestion is that we start without it, and if ppl continue to ask for it, do it next year 15:54:54 q? 15:54:56 florian: I don't think it's impossible to define, but it's more moving parts 15:55:12 florian: We have two definitions of the Process, one which has this definition bu thas ambiguities 15:55:25 florian: Another issue is, if we have separate parts, then we need names for each part 15:55:47 florian: In the existing branch of Process where separate publication is allowed, the Definitions must always be on the REC track 15:56:02 florian: but now that we have a Registry Track, if we have separate publications for Definitions and Tables 15:56:12 florian: I'd rather not answer all these questions and keep it simple for now 15:56:18 dsinger: I think we need the set of questions 15:56:37 dsinger: My read of the situation is that this is the common case, we shouldn't ban it 15:56:47 dsinger: Let's see what questions need and try to resolve it 15:57:01 florian: I can try 15:57:20 Fantasai: It's common outside of W3C 15:57:35 ... but in W3C they tend to incorporate the definition and the registry into a single doc 15:57:44 ... unless they are not allowed to update the REC 15:57:55 ... Florian's concerns about complications are relevant 15:57:59 ... Process Doc is long 15:58:07 ... we can avoid that here 15:58:16 ... if it becomes an issue we can do it next year 15:58:28 ... survey results in detailed showed 15:58:51 ... (both those that needed and those that considered harmful) confusion 15:58:54 q+ 15:59:06 ... they want easy update which is exactly what Registries give you. 15:59:31 dsinger: If allow publication together, Team needs to check that you didn't modify the wrong parts of the document 15:59:50 fantasai: need to do that anyway, because allowing that already 16:00:01 florian: We have two branches for registries edits 16:00:14 florian: I suggest on the editor's side, we change the two branches of the Process so that they're only different in this specific quesiton 16:00:22 florian: and as part of doing that surface what the remaining issues are 16:00:24 dsinger: Sounds good 16:00:40 q? 16:00:49 ack fant 16:00:53 q- 16:01:05 dsinger: Didn't get to Recording meetings 16:01:12 dsinger: Can we prepare a PR? 16:01:23 i/dsinger: Didn't/Topic: Recording meetings 16:01:28 florian: I'll try 16:01:52 dsinger: Some discussion about public/perpetual recordings, unsure about banning them, unlikely to get approval from group though 16:01:59 dsinger: anyway let's look into those 16:02:10 Topic: AC Review Comments 16:02:16 we need to take steps on recordings towards being more inclusive of diverse realtime participants IMO 16:02:17 dsinger: We need to work through those 16:02:43 dsinger: for issue ?? , if can resolve by accepting PR would be nice 16:03:03 dsinger: wrt Wide Review issues, I think we need some help? 16:03:12 dsinger: suggestion in the issue that it can be closed 16:03:19 dsinger: next meeting March 10th 16:03:27 q? 16:03:28 s/AC Review Comments/Follow-up/ 16:03:51 Meeting closed. 16:04:02 dsinger: Thanks everyone for the hard work