Retire the "Streamlined Publication Approval" system

[frivoal]

I believe that Streamlined Publication Approval is unused.

The motivation for this Process feature is described at the begining of the section:

In order to streamline the publication process in non-controversial cases, verification of an update request is automatically granted without formal review when the following additional criteria are fulfilled: […]

Note: These criteria are intentionally stricter than the general requirements for an update request. This is in order to minimize ambiguities and the need for expert judgment, and to make self-evaluation practical.

In practice, nobody has found it useful to place the additional burden on themselves to document that all additional criteria are fulfilled in order to save a little bit of time by spiking verification of the update request, nor requested improved tooling to make that easier. (@plh, could you confirm?)

We should admit that this is a failed experiment, and remove it from the Process. Rules about REC track transitions are complicated enough without confusing people with irrelevant clauses.

[nigelmegitt]

Data would certainly be helpful here. This is ringing tiny bells for me that we may once have either used it or relied on the possibility of using it, in order to make a decision.

[fantasai]

I think what's happened is that the standard process has been streamlined enough that we don't need to implement this additional system. :) So +1 to removing it.

[css-meeting-bot]

The Revising W3C Process CG just discussed Retire "Streamlined Publication Approval", and agreed to the following:

• RESOLVED: Accept PR 857 to delete "Streamlined Publication Approval"

The full IRC log of that discussion

<fantasai> Subtopic: Retire "Streamlined Publication Approval"
<fantasai> github: https://github.com/w3c/w3process/issues/856
<fantasai> -> https://github.com/w3c/w3process/pull/857
<fantasai> florian: When we did Process 2020, we tried to make some transition requests easier because at the time it took a long time
<fantasai> ... we introduced a stricter path in the Process, that doesn't require the Director's decision
<fantasai> ... but nobody used this
<fantasai> fantasai: also we streamlined getting manual approval a lot
<fantasai> florian: overall REC track is long and complicated, this chapter doesn't help much and just confuses people
<fantasai> ... suggestion is to delete
<fantasai> <fantasai> +1
<cpn> +1
<fantasai> plh: +1
<fantasai> RESOLVED: Accept PR 857 to delete "Streamlined Publication Approval"