docs: add community governance and promotion guide (#318)

Author: uuuyuqi

src/content/docs/developer/en/developers_dev.md

@@ -35,33 +35,225 @@ This page shows the development team members of Spring Cloud Alibaba. We are con
 | Ziming Liu     | 123liuziming  | Committer | 448918299@qq.com        | Graduate student at Peking University |
 | Shiwen Ji      | yuluo-yx      | Committer | karashouk.pan@gmail.com | ~                                     |
 
-## Development Role
+## Community Roles and Promotion Mechanism
 
-The Spring Cloud Alibaba project developer includes three roles: Steering Committee Member, Committer, and Contributor. The standard definitions of each role are as follows.
+The Spring Cloud Alibaba community includes four roles: Contributor,
+Committer, Maintainer, and Steering Committee Member. Each role carries
+different responsibilities and permissions, and promotion is based on sustained
+contribution, community trust, and an open process.
 
-### Steering Committee Member
+## Principles
+
+The Spring Cloud Alibaba community is governed by the following principles:
+
+- Merit and trust: roles are earned through sustained contribution, sound
+  judgment, and trust from the community;
+- Responsibility before privilege: additional permissions are granted to enable
+  service to the project, not as a title or reward;
+- Contributions beyond code: code, reviews, issue triage, design discussion,
+  release work, documentation, examples, user support, community operations,
+  and mentoring are all valued;
+- Transparency: role changes should be proposed, discussed, and recorded in an
+  open and auditable way;
+- Reversibility: elevated roles may be adjusted when members become inactive,
+  step down, or violate community standards;
+- Respect: all participants are expected to follow the community code of
+  conduct.
+
+## Community Roles
+
+### Contributor
+
+A Contributor is any individual who has made a meaningful contribution to the
+project.
 
-Steering Committee, as the technical development steering committee of the Spring Cloud Alibaba project, its members are individuals who have made significant contributions to the evolution and development of the Spring Cloud Alibaba project. Specifically include the following standards:：
+The baseline for becoming a Contributor is:
 
-- Complete the design and development of multiple key modules or projects, and be the core developer of the project;
-- Continuous investment and passion, able to actively participate in the maintenance of community, official website, issue, PR and other project related matters;
-- Has a visible influence in the community and can represent Spring Cloud Alibaba to participate in important community conferences and activities;
-- Have the awareness and ability to cultivate Committer and Contributor;
-- The Steering Committee Member is elected in the senior Committer, and is discussed and voted by all members of the Steering Committee. It is necessary to obtain more than half of the total number of votes to be elected;
+- submitting a pull request that is merged;
+
+The community also values many other forms of contribution, including issue
+reporting, documentation, examples, tests, reviews, and user support. These
+contributions should be recognized in promotion decisions.
+
+Contributors are encouraged to continue participating in reviews, discussions,
+and community activities.
 
 ### Committer
 
-A committer is an individual with write permissions to the repository, and includes the following criteria:
+A Committer is a trusted community member with repository write access who can
+merge pull requests and help maintain project quality.
 
-- Individuals who can make continuous contributions to issues and PRs for a long time;
-- Made important feature contributions to the community;
-- Participate in the maintenance of the issue list, the discussion of important features, the hosting of the community weekly meeting and the participation in community activities such as sharing the weekly community meeting
-- Participated in the quarterly active contributor program of the community at least once;
-- Participate in code review;
-- Committer is nominated and voted by members of the Steering Committee Member, and can be elected with at least 3 votes;
+Typical expectations for becoming a Committer:
 
-### Contributor
+- make sustained issue and pull request contributions over a long period;
+- make important feature contributions to the community;
+- participate in issue list maintenance, discussion of important features,
+  community meetings, community sharing, and other community activities;
+- participate in code review.
+
+The Steering Committee may also consider practical signals such as:
+
+- a sustained record of substantive pull requests and reviews;
+- healthy collaboration, communication, and technical judgment;
+- evidence of module familiarity, mentoring, or release support.
+
+Typical responsibilities of a Committer:
+
+- merge pull requests that meet project quality standards;
+- participate in review, triage, and technical discussion on an ongoing basis;
+- help enforce project conventions, backward compatibility expectations, and
+  testing standards;
+- help onboard new contributors and support potential Committer growth.
+
+Committer approval process:
+
+- nomination should be initiated by a Steering Committee Member; a Maintainer
+  may recommend a candidate to the Steering Committee;
+- the nomination should be posted publicly and remain open for at least 7 days;
+- the nomination should include evidence of sustained contributions, reviews,
+  and community participation;
+- election requires no fewer than 3 affirmative votes from the Steering
+  Committee.
+
+### Maintainer
+
+A Maintainer is responsible for a module, subsystem, or key area. A Maintainer
+is normally also a Committer and serves as the day-to-day owner of a subsystem,
+integration, or cross-cutting capability.
+
+Typical expectations for becoming a Maintainer:
+
+- served effectively as a Committer for at least 6 months;
+- sustained ownership of at least 1 module, subsystem, or cross-cutting area;
+- a strong record of reviews, design leadership, and issue resolution in the
+  last 12 months;
+- demonstrated mentoring of Contributors or Committers;
+- willingness to take responsibility for release readiness, backlog health, and
+  module direction.
+
+Typical responsibilities of a Maintainer:
+
+- set module direction and make final calls when consensus cannot be reached at
+  the module level;
+- maintain review responsiveness and quality expectations for their area;
+- coordinate significant design changes, deprecations, and compatibility
+  decisions;
+- help identify and develop future Committers and Maintainer candidates;
+- participate in repository permission configuration when needed as the module
+  owner.
+
+Maintainer approval process:
+
+- nomination must be proposed by at least 2 Maintainers, or at least 1 Steering
+  Committee Member;
+- the nomination should be posted publicly and remain open for at least 7 days;
+- election requires approval from more than half of the active Steering
+  Committee Members.
+
+### Steering Committee Member
+
+The Steering Committee is responsible for cross-project technical governance,
+community process, major role appointments, and dispute resolution.
+
+Typical expectations for becoming a Steering Committee Member include:
+
+- completing the design and development of multiple key modules or projects and
+  being a core developer of the project;
+- showing sustained investment and passion, and actively participating in
+  community, website, issue, pull request, and related maintenance work;
+- having visible influence in the community and being able to represent Spring
+  Cloud Alibaba in important community meetings and activities;
+- having the awareness and ability to cultivate Committers and Contributors.
+
+Steering Committee Members are normally selected from senior Committers,
+typically those who have already demonstrated Maintainer-level ownership and
+cross-project impact.
+
+Typical responsibilities of a Steering Committee Member:
+
+- define and evolve governance policy and community process;
+- approve Committer, Maintainer, and Steering Committee nominations;
+- resolve escalated cross-module disputes or priority conflicts;
+- help represent the project in the broader open source ecosystem;
+- maintain a healthy, diverse, and sustainable community.
+
+Steering Committee approval process:
+
+- nominations should normally come from active Steering Committee Members;
+- the nomination should be discussed openly where appropriate;
+- election requires approval from more than half of the active Steering
+  Committee Members.
+
+## Promotion Rules
+
+The following rules apply to all role promotions:
+
+- role decisions should be based on sustained contribution over time rather than
+  a single large pull request or event;
+- numerical criteria are guidelines, not a substitute for judgment;
+- non-code contributions must be considered alongside code contributions;
+- the candidate's employer, affiliation, or commercial background must not be a
+  deciding factor;
+- candidates should be informed before a nomination is made public and may
+  decline the nomination;
+- a nominee must not vote on their own promotion.
+
+## Activity, Inactive Status, and Emeritus Status
+
+Meaningful activity includes code contributions, reviews, issue triage, design
+discussion, release work, mentoring, community meetings, and other visible
+project maintenance work.
+
+Activity expectations:
+
+- Committers, Maintainers, and Steering Committee Members who have no
+  meaningful activity for 12 consecutive months may be marked inactive;
+- Members who remain inactive for an extended period, normally 18 months, may
+  be moved to Emeritus status by the Steering Committee.
+
+Emeritus status:
+
+- recognizes historical service to the project;
+- does not include routine merge, approval, or governance responsibilities;
+- may be reactivated through a lightweight review by the body that owns the
+  role.
+
+Members are always welcome to step down voluntarily. Voluntary transitions
+should be respected and recorded publicly.
+
+## Removal and Role Adjustment
+
+Roles may be removed or adjusted when a member:
+
+- requests to step down;
+- becomes inactive for an extended period;
+- repeatedly fails to meet role responsibilities;
+- seriously violates the code of conduct or abuses project permissions.
+
+Except in urgent situations involving safety or abuse, removal or downgrade of
+Committer, Maintainer, or Steering Committee roles should be discussed by the
+Steering Committee and recorded publicly.
+
+## Repository Permissions and Role Mapping
+
+Community roles and repository permissions are related, but they are not
+identical.
+
+Recommended mapping:
+
+- Contributor: default repository access;
+- Committer: repository write access;
+- Maintainer: repository write or maintain access and responsibility as a
+  module owner;
+- Steering Committee Member: governance role; repository admin access should be
+  granted only when operationally necessary.
+
+Where practical, the project should maintain module ownership through
+CODEOWNERS or an equivalent public ownership mechanism. Committer, Maintainer,
+and Steering Committee rosters should be published and kept current.
 
-Contributors are individuals who contribute to the project, the standard is
+## Amendments
 
-- Submitted PR and merged;
+This document may be updated by the Steering Committee through public
+discussion and approval. Material changes should be announced to the community
+before they take effect.