In the "Four Major problems of CPAN" blog post ( http://blogs.perl.org/users/brendan_byrd/2013/03/the-four-major-problems-with-cpan.html ), Brendan Byrd raises the problem of tracking abandoned modules. In the comments, brian mentions ADOPTME.
Setting aside the majority of the post -- which can continue to be discussed there -- I want to get PAUSE admins' thoughts on expanding the use of ADOPTME along these lines: (1) Anyone can propose that any distribution (and it's contained packages) have ADOPTME be added as co-maint on the grounds of it being abandoned (2) Such a request would need to meet the same standard as taking co-maint, namely, showing the author is not responsive after repeated contact attempts (3) Because the author would not lose primary, if they became active, they could remove ADOPTME from comaint if they wish at any time How does this help CPAN? Having ADOPTME show up in 06perms would give search.cpan.org and metacpan.org a way to flag abandoned modules in searches (or to modify search results themselves). This helps users by giving them a warning sign before using unmaintained modules they find there. Who would make such requests? Why don't they take comaint and fix things instead? Not everyone wants to take on the burden of a module, but people may find themselves burned using something unmaintained and might want to flag it as such to help the next sucker avoid it. What about authors who respond but still don't maintain their modules? We can't do anything about that and I don't think we should. People will need to find other ways to make that problem visible (e.g. bug tickets and module reviews). Why use PAUSE for this? Because it is the official place for module metadata and it won't go away. Plus, we already have everything we need to make it happen. ADOPTME user? Check. Comaint process? Check. 06perms? Check. We can solve the data side of this problem *now*. The only thing we have to do is say that people can propose that ADOPTME take co-maint following the usual co-maint process. (And by "say" I mean, publish that on pause.perl.org in the appropriate place.) Then the search engines can be patched to look for ADOPTME anywhere in 06perms and everyone can benefit. Other sites could be created to try to attract new mantainers, etc. And the more visible this is, the more we might be able to encourage module authors themselves to add ADOPTME as comaint as a way to signal that they are looking for someone to take over. David -- David Golden <x...@xdg.me> Take back your inbox! → http://www.bunchmail.com/ Twitter/IRC: @xdg
