Hi, Thanks, Andreas, for proposing and pushing this forward. I do really support this idea, but as I commented on the PR, I think the waiting times could be reduced.
We are all volunteers and invest our biological time into the process. If somebody does not have the time to fix something or work on a package, let other people do it while they have the motivation. Otherwise, the number of unmaintained, or effectively hiddenly unmaintained, packages will increase. If the maintainer does not want somebody else to maintain the package, they can simply reply within a reasonable timeframe. But in most cases, I think they do not even have the motivation or time to reply to such emails. Why, then, should we stop the progress of the project and wait for years? We all have limited, in fact very limited, time. Best regards Anton Am Mi., 1. Juli 2026 um 10:30 Uhr schrieb Andreas Tille <[email protected]>: > > Hi, > > Following the recent discussion about packages that appear to lack > active maintenance, I have prepared a Merge Request against the > Developers Reference that attempts to document a possible > contributor-initiated orphaning workflow. > > The proposal is intended as an optional workflow for contributors who > encounter packages that appear to lack active maintenance but who do not > wish to become the package's long-term maintainer themselves. > > It complements the existing orphaning and salvaging procedures by > providing a documented workflow for contributors willing to investigate > a package's maintenance status and prepare the necessary QA action. > > Compared to the original discussion, I have tried to incorporate the > feedback received on debian-devel by: > > * making the workflow package-centric rather than maintainer-centric > * treating the listed criteria as non-exhaustive indicators rather than > mandatory requirements > * making the opportunities for the Maintainer and Uploaders to object > explicit > > I would appreciate review of both the proposed workflow and whether the > Developers Reference is the appropriate place to document it. > > The Merge Request is available here: > > https://salsa.debian.org/debian/developers-reference/-/merge_requests/85 > > Comments and suggestions are welcome. > > Kind regards > Andreas. > > -- > https://fam-tille.de
