Remove gating requirement of the Early Access program
Updating guidance based on prior discussions with e-group, @hbenson, @esalvadorp, @justinfarris , @steve-evangelista and others.
Why? There was a lot of biikeshedding on the term gating, while we are already gating access as people have to accept the testing terms, amongst other gating mechanisms.
A quote from @justinfarris on that gating word and why we're making this change (https://gitlab.slack.com/archives/C0684D49YUD/p1720552103894299?thread_ts=1720550879.781729&cid=C0684D49YUD):
Thanks Nick, one observation I've had is we keep tripping over the term "gating" and it's causing confusion (I see it in those e-group notes too). I think we should MECEFU it, we have many gates:
- The existing beta/experiment toggle is a gate
- A feature flag is a gate
- A paid subscription requiring a license to access features is a gate
- The proposed early access program is a gate
Other recent events & decisions leading to these changes were
- Guidance from @steve-evangelista : looks like this is OBE based on the understanding that we're instead going to proceed with modifying our existing Testing Agreement, and thus having the existing "opt in to experimental & beta features" toggle also serve the function of opting in to contact that customer (https://gitlab.slack.com/archives/C0684D49YUD/p1720561333907169?thread_ts=1720534838.502549&cid=C0684D49YUD)
- Guidance from @hbenson : https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/legal-and-compliance/-/issues/1856#note_2008165805
- Confirmation from Legal by @emccrann : https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/legal-and-compliance/-/issues/1856#note_2008196483
- Decision taken by @esalvadorp based on guidance above: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/legal-and-compliance/-/issues/1856#note_2012060956
Author and Reviewer Checklist
Please verify the check list and ensure to tick them off before the MR is merged.
-
Provided a concise title for this Merge Request (MR) -
Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say why, not just what - Copy/paste the Slack conversation to document it for later, or upload screenshots. Verify that no confidential data is added, and the content is SAFE
-
Assign reviewers for this MR to the correct Directly Responsible Individual/s (DRI) - If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the
Maintained bysection on the page being edited - If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies
- The when to get approval handbook section explains the workflow in more detail
- If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the
-
For transparency, share this MR with the audience that will be impacted. -
Team: For changes that affect your direct team, share in your group Slack channel -
Department: If the update affects your department, share the MR in your department Slack channel -
Division: If the update affects your division, share the MR in your division Slack channel -
Company: If the update affects all (or the majority of) GitLab team members, post an update in #whats-happening-at-gitlab linking to this MR - For high-priority company-wide announcements work with the internal communications team to post the update in #company-fyi and align on a plan to circulate in additional channels like the "While You Were Iterating" Newsletter
-
Commits
- Update file early-access-program.md
- Update file early-access-program.md