Abstain voting option for RFCs View as Markdown

Introduction

It is commonly the case that RFC voters do not feel strongly about an individual RFC, but the current voting guidelines make it impossible to express this.

The current voting guidelines for RFCs require a binary vote with a 2/3 majority to accept RFCs. It is often the case that RFC voters do not feel strongly about an individual RFC, despite participating in the discussion. When it goes to vote, they are unable to express their opinion on the RFC itself, leaving some ambiguity whether they “missed the vote” or whether they just don't feel strongly about it, particularly when it's a multi-vote RFC. They might also feel compelled to cast a vote just as a “sign of activity”, or to prevent people from reaching out to them, inquiring about if they missed the RFC.

The topic of an explicit “Abstain” option has therefore come up multiple times during informal discussions and this RFC intends to formalize it. With regard to the results of a vote, the “Abstain” option behaves identically to not casting a vote.

Proposal

Accept the policy in https://github.com/php/policies/pull/20.

Besides adding the requirement of an “Abstain” option to the primary vote of an RFC it also updates the language of the “voting methodology” section to be clearer, particularly with regard to secondary votes.

Open Issues

None.

Future Scope

• Introducing a quorum.

Voting Choices

Despite technically being in violation of the current voting guidelines, this RFC includes the “Abstain” option in the primary vote to “dog-food” the proposal (the “Abstain” option could legally be included as a secondary vote without an effect).

As with every RFC, a 2/3 majority is required. Voting ends 2025-08-31 at 15:00:00 UTC.

Vote: Accept php/policies PR #20 (Add Abstain voting option and update phrasing for the voting) at commit de94b7a132c4a74e54e7848914203f1849231697? — Yes: 27 · No: 7 · Abstain: 6 (closed)

Patches and Tests

• https://github.com/php/policies/pull/20

Implementation

• https://github.com/php/policies/commit/349d3f76449546f349660219aa113f4b6c3f20c0

References

None.

Rejected Features

None.

Changelog

• 2025-07-22: Initial version.