[Haskell-cafe] haskell-janitors (was Re: New rss maintainer)

[Conrad Parker]

On 22 October 2011 22:52, Bas van Dijk <v.dijk.bas at gmail.com> wrote:
> I released a new rss:
>
> http://hackage.haskell.org//package/rss-3000.2.0
>
> It no longer requires old-time and is tested with the latest versions
> of its dependencies.
>
> On 21 October 2011 17:34, Vincent Hanquez <tab at snarc.org> wrote:
>> Perhaps, unless someone step up, it would be nice to move packages that have
>> no maintainer anymore into a github organisation (haskell-janitors ?),
>
> Nice idea! However I think we should always strive for having a single
> or a limited number of maintainers. Finally when nobody wants to take
> over a package we can hand it over to haskell-janitors.

I like the janitors idea because it is practical, and I also like the
ideal world where every package has an active maintainer.

How about we set up the haskell-janitors github group as Vincent
suggests, with some basic rules like:

* when you upload a package you put your name and email address in the
maintainer field, with a comment saying that you are maintaining this
package through the haskell-janitors group

* anyone in the haskell-janitors group can upload a new version of a
package which is maintained through the haskell-janitors group. When
you do so you set (or prepend?) your name as maintainer.

* if anyone anywhere ever gets keen to take exclusive maintenance of a
project, to redesign it or whatever, they're welcome to take it out of
haskell-janitors.

Goals would be:

* timely uploads (anyone can upload)
* accountability (you put your name on it)
* packages still have someone who can accept patches, answer questions
etc. (you put your name on it)

Conrad.