matrix-spec/specification/proposal_etiquette.rst

.. title:: Proposal Etiquette

Proposal Etiquette
------------------

Proposals **must** act to the greater benefit of the entire Matrix ecosystem,
rather than benefiting or privileging any single player or subset of players -
and must not contain any patent encumbered intellectual property. Members of the Core Team pledge to act as
a neutral custodian for Matrix on behalf of the whole ecosystem.

For clarity: the Matrix ecosystem is anyone who uses the Matrix protocol. That
includes client users, server admins, client developers, bot developers,
bridge and application service developers, users and admins who are indirectly using Matrix via
3rd party networks which happen to be bridged, server developers, room
moderators and admins, companies/projects building products or services on
Matrix, spec contributors, translators, and those who created it in
the first place.

"Greater benefit" could include maximising:

* the number of end-users reachable on the open Matrix network
* the number of regular users on the Matrix network (e.g. 30-day retained
  federated users)
* the number of online servers in the open federation
* the number of developers building on Matrix
* the number of independent implementations which use Matrix
* the quality and utility of the Matrix spec

In addition, proposal authors are expected to uphold the following values in
their proposed changes to the Matrix protocol:

* Supporting the whole long-term ecosystem rather than individual stakeholder gain
* Openness rather than proprietariness
* Collaboration rather than competition
* Accessibility rather than elitism
* Transparency rather than stealth
* Empathy rather than contrariness
* Pragmatism rather than perfection
* Proof rather than conjecture

Return to the `proposals page <proposals.html>`_.