When an addition is accepted at the “candidate” (stage 3) maturity level, the committee is signifying that it believes design work is complete and further refinement will require implementation experience, significant usage and external feedback. -
During the discussion of a proposal, at any stage, any aspect may be discussed, including those outside of the scope of its current stage. A proposal’s advancement may be blocked, however the committee does not have a concept of a rejected proposal.
+During the discussion of a proposal, at any stage, any aspect may be discussed, including those outside of the scope of its current stage. A proposal’s advancement may not have consensus, and may be "blocked". A block is a forumated reason for why a proposal should not advance in it's present form. The committee does not have a concept of a rejected proposal.
-To block the advancement of a proposal, a reason must be given and it must be discussed in committee. If no reason is given, the block is void for vagueness. If a delegate needs more time to consider aspects of a proposal, they may request a delay on the decision, or allow conditional advancement.
+In withholding consensus for advancement, a reason should be stated either as a delay or as a block. If no reason is given, the objection is void for vagueness. In the case of a delay -- a delegate may need more time to consider a given aspect of a proposal. They may request additional time, or allow conditional advancement.
-Conditional advancement is time limited, giving the person raising the block time to discuss with the champions and authors about their concerns. If a proposal has conditional advancement, and issue is opened on the proposal’s repository. If the issue is resolved, the proposal automatically reaches the next stage without further discussion by the committee. If the issue cannot be resolved, the proposal does not advance.
+Conditional advancement is time-limited, giving the person raising the block time to discuss with the champions and authors about their concerns. If a proposal has conditional advancement, an issue is opened on the proposal’s repository. If the issue is resolved, the proposal automatically reaches the next stage without further discussion by the committee. If the issue cannot be resolved, the proposal does not advance.
-Blockers need to be well described and recorded within the committee, so that in future meetings and future proposals we can learn from failed proposals, and have a good record of why they failed.
+A Block need to be well described and recorded within the committee, so that in future meetings and future proposals we can learn from failed proposals, and have a good record of why they failed.
-Regardless of stage, the following types of blockers require the committee to reach consensus in order for the block to be valid: Blockers without a given reason, Blockers which have been discussed at length by the committee and were resolved.
+Regardless of stage, the following types of blocks require the committee to reach consensus in order for the block to be valid: Blocks related to an earlier stage, Blocks which have been discussed at length by the committee and were resolved, and insufficently stated blocks.
-Blocking criteria for reaching stage 1 are limited. Proposals which have fulfilled the acceptance criteria may not be blocked from reaching stage 1 unless there has been a very similar proposal that has already been through the process and has not advanced. In this case, the author(s) and champion(s) should be directed to the appropriate record of the previous proposal, so that they can revise their approach. The reason for this restricted ability to block is so that proposals have the necessary time to develop, and the committee has the necessary time to consider them.
- -Blocking criteria for reaching stage 2 and 3 are not limited. Proposals which have fulfilled the acceptance criteria may be blocked from advancement for any well stated reason.
+Blocking criteria for reaching stage 1, 2 and 3 are not limited but should be weighed according to their stage. Proposals which have fulfilled the acceptance criteria may be blocked from advancement for any well stated reason.
Blocking criteria for reaching stage 4 are limited. Proposals which have fulfilled the acceptance criteria may not be blocked from advancement unless the block is related to implementation experience or the block identifies an issue or information which has not previously been discussed by the committee. The reason stage 4 blocking is limited is to allow implementers to invest in implementations, and maintain the significance of stage 3 in the process.