On Sat, 2008-05-10 at 11:51 +0100, Ross Paterson wrote:
It's a special case of a broader problem with non-maintainer uploads (i.e. releases), which cause exactly the same problems for other packages too. If we had an agreed policy we could advertise and enforce it, but we don't. I don't think that mechanized enforcement is the priority; having a policy is.
This seems like a good moment to revisit that discussion http://haskell.org/pipermail/libraries/2008-February/009343.html Here's a straw man policy: We want packages to be uploaded by maintainers or someone the maintainer/author has delegated that responsibility to. Packages can be forked at any time but with new names. Transferring maintenance of a package from one person to another is easy since it's just delegation. The tricky case is when the original maintainer/author disappears without delegating/nominating new maintainers and a new volunteer wants to pick up the package under the original name. We can borrow a policy here from some existing organisation, the procedure usually involves trying to find the maintainer, giving them time to respond, then announcing that you want to take over maintenance and seeking feedback and hopefully reaching a consensus. Duncan