Well, not all packages uploaded to hackage are "libraries" in the sense that other packages rely on them.  There are tons of applications, and also things intended to be general purpose libraries that never get enough users.

But once your package is used by enough others that rely on it, you need a backup maintainer.

One could think of a "ladder" where packages acquire reputation/status, and from a certain point on one needs a backup maintainer.

On 09.05.2014 15:00, Alois Cochard wrote:

Does it mean you prefer not having a package in hackage than having it
without a backup maintainer?

Just think about all the packages that would not have reached hackage
with a rule like that...


On 7 May 2014 20:59, Andreas Abel <andreas.abel@ifi.lmu.de
<mailto:andreas.abel@ifi.lmu.de>> wrote:

    On 07.05.2014 14:49, Roman Cheplyaka wrote:

        Having backup maintainers is the answer.
        http://ro-che.info/articles/__2014-02-08-my-haskell-will.__html
        <http://ro-che.info/articles/2014-02-08-my-haskell-will.html>


    Yes!  +1

    hackage should require a backup maintainer for every library package
    upload.


            On May 7, 2014 8:36 AM, "Roman Cheplyaka" <roma@ro-che.info
            <mailto:roma@ro-che.info>> wrote:

                No. In my opinion, there's no good reason why a package
                should remain
                broken for
                more than a day, given that there are people who has
                found, reported, and
                fixed
                the issue. All the actual work is done, now someone just
                has to push a
                button.

                * Oliver Charles <ollie@ocharles.org.uk
                <mailto:ollie@ocharles.org.uk>> [2014-05-07 13:29:40+0100]

                    Isn't a 4 day turn around on a pull request a little
                    hasty?

                    - ocharles


                    On Wed, May 7, 2014 at 8:50 AM, Roman Cheplyaka
                    <roma@ro-che.info <mailto:roma@ro-che.info>>

                wrote:


                        Hi Max,

                        are you still maintaining the 'temporary' package?
                        There's a breakage waiting to be fixed (with a
                        patch):
                        https://github.com/__batterseapower/temporary/pull/__12
                        <https://github.com/batterseapower/temporary/pull/12>

                        If I don't hear from you in two days, I'll
                        request maintainership

                and/or

                        fork the package.

--
Andreas Abel  <><      Du bist der geliebte Mensch.

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Chalmers and Gothenburg University, Sweden

andreas.abel@gu.se
http://www2.tcs.ifi.lmu.de/~abel/