[csw-maintainers] Maintainers suspected not to be active though listed as such

[Dagobert Michelsen]

Hi Peter,

first thanks for going through all this :-)

Am 19.03.2010 um 10:53 schrieb Peter Bonivart:
> I quickly looked at http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/buglist.cgi with a
> relatively loose criteria of:
>
> 1. The maintainer should be listed as active
> 2. There should be bugs several months old still in the state of "new"
> (no response at all)
> 3. There should be no other more recent sign of work on other bugs
> 4. Some people fit the above listed criteria but I still know they are
> active (list postings and such)
>
> Here's the list I came up with:
>
> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=ja

Jürgen changed the employer and is probably busy at the moment
but told me he is going to continue to work on his packages.
He is a member of the association since 2009-03-27. Maybe
he needs some encouragement :)

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=mike

Mike responds to emails, but hasn't updated stuff in a long while
now, even after ping.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=mburki

I guess Manuel can safely be considered retrred.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=sdean

Same.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=debertin

Last contact with me was in February 2010 when he wanted to
update libsigsegv.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=drio

Last email was from October 2009 when he said he wanted to update
his packages. Maybe he is busy with other things.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=michael

Michael is more on sabbatical. He operates the OpenCSW master mirror at
the University of Erlangen and responds to emails. I guess his packages
are all safe for takeover. He is a member of the association since
2008-12-18.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=harpchad

Chad has lots of other things at the moment, but will jump back in
when he has the opportunity to do so. Currently ping fails. I want
to update his packages CSWglib2 and CSWgnutls. He is a member of
the association since 2009-01-06.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=mph

I guess it is safe to mark Michael retired. No email for years.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=opk

Oliver is active. He just hasn't updated his package. A simple ping
will be sufficient here. He is a member of the association since
2009-01-01.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=korpela

Last email was from November 2009 when he waited on the release of
wxwidgets. Maybe a ping will suffice. He is a member of the
association since 2009-02-13.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=dlaigle

Dominique visited the camps in Zurick and Oslo and I met him once
more for work on Kerberos. I have the feeling he is busy with
other things right now, but has worked some ugly things for OpenCSW
in the past. Maybe a ping would be good. He is a founding member
of the association.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=aubrey

Aubrey last mailed on November 2009 and got some problems with his
update. Maybe a ping will suffice.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=rmartin

No email for years, IMHO safe for takeover (CSWrssh).

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=mmayer

Last contact was November 2008. Multiple pings since then without  
result.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=mueller

No email for years, IMHO safe for takeover.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=darin

Last email from November 2009, maybe just needs a ping.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=wpool

No email for years, IMHO safe for takeover (CSWjboss3, CSWjboss4).

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=angelo

No sign of life since the fork, IMHO safe for takeover (CSWclex).

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=car

Last email from September 2009, Chris Reece is a member of the  
association
as of 2008-12-18.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=joerg

Joerg is active, I just met him a couple of weeks ago and OpenCSW will
also receive updated cdrtools. He maybe just too lenient to close
the bugs and probably only needs a ping.

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=ryan

No sign of life since the fork, IMHO safe for takeover (CSWapg,  
CSWeruby).

> http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=fred

Last email from December 2008, initially joined the project,
pingtest failed multiple times, so IMHO safe for takover (I already
updated his giflib) (CSWgifsicle, CSWgocr, CSWlogrotate, CSWocrad,
multiple Perl modules (!), CSWproftpd, CSWrazor)

> I think many of the above maintainers should really be listed as
> retired. I can try to contact them directly and would like some help
> with that.
>
> 1. Is it correct that I can construct e-mail addresses from the above
> maintainer name, e.g. ja at opencsw.org?

Yes.

> 2. Any suggestions on the e-mail content? "We think you may be
> retired, reply if not"...

Maybe a bit more friendly. I usually write

> Hi <maintainer>,
>
> I noticed that you have been inactive since the fork. As there
> have been some bugs reported for your packages it would be nice
> if you could take a look:
>  <http://www.opencsw.org/buglist/maintainer.cgi?maintainer=...>
>
> If you don't have time to do so or don't want to join back in for
> other reasons please let me know also.


> 3. How long to wait for a reply before changing their status?

I would say 1-2 weeks.

> I see it as a benefit to list them properly as retired if they in deed
> are so. I know it may look bad with many retired maintainers but what
> really is bad is that many packages are orphaned and we don't handle
> it. Changing their status is the first step to fix bugs and upgrade
> packages.


Thanks for your effort!

   -- Dago