Changing Maintainer Policy

This document defines the process for changing the Wizards Den Maintainer Policy.

What constitutes a change?

A change to the Maintainer Policy is defined as any alteration to any file within the src/en/wizden-staff/maintainer directory in the Docs repository.

Process for Changing Maintainer Policy

To change the Maintainer Policy, the following process must be followed:

1. The Maintainer creates a draft PR to the Docs repository with the proposed changes.
2. The Maintainer must then create a vote in the “/Internal/Maintainers/” category on Discourse, linking to the draft PR. This vote will be open for one week, and all Maintainers will be notified of the vote.
3. During this time, Maintainers should discuss the proposed changes, raise concerns, and ask any questions they may have.
   • If there is a unanimous vote in favor or against the proposed changes by the end of day 2 of the vote, it may be closed early.
     • If this happens, the Lead Maintainer Team will review the vote and decide if it should be closed or remain open for the full week.
   • If there is no clear majority, the vote must remain open for the full week.
   • If there is a clear indication that the vote will not pass, the Maintainer may withdraw the PR and vote, and make changes based on the feedback received. This can be done at any time during the vote.
   • For a vote to pass, it must have a supermajority (66%) of votes in favor.
     • Abstain votes are considered neutral. Only votes in favor or against are counted.
4. Once the vote is closed, the results will be announced. If the vote passes, the PR may then be merged. If the vote fails, the Maintainer may either close the PR or make changes based on the feedback received during the vote. Step 1 and 2 can then be skipped and the vote can be remade with the new changes in the same Topic created initally in step 2.

Special Cases

The above process may be skipped in the following cases:

• If the change is minor and does not significantly impact the responsibilities of Maintainers, the Lead Maintainers may decide to skip the vote.
• If the change is an emergency, the Lead Maintainers may decide to skip the vote.
  • An emergency is defined as a situation where the policy is causing immediate harm to the project.