Clarifying Feature Freeze Definition

[Kate Stewart]

Dear Release Team members, and others interested, 

   In asking around and after reading the documentation I'm hearing some
varied opinions of what it actually means to feature freeze.  On reading
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FeatureFreeze,  it seems to not be as specific
as needed.

"At this point we stop introducing new features, packages, and APIs, and
concentrate on fixing bugs in the development release."

My expectation is that the freeze is for all main packages, and seeded
universe packages.

In WIKI it states:  "For the purpose of the FeatureFreeze, the upload
date matters, i. e. all packages which are in the NEW queue by that time
will be processed without the need for an exception."

So my question areas are: 

1)  Is everyone comfortable with this comfortable with using upload date
and NEW queue?   How long after it being in the NEW queue does it need
to be processed by?   I think we need to aim for them all to be
processed within the week, but would like to hear what's reasonable from
the AAs.

2) if a package is rejected just before FF due to a technicality,  does
it need a FFE exception after?   What consititutes a technicality?

3) by feature freeze, all new images for the manifest should be building
daily images?  (I consider a new hardware platform as a feature ;) ).

4) anything else others have been finding unclear?

Would like to get some concensus,  and then broadcast this so the
expectations are clear with the development community too. 

Thanks,  Kate