Bug#570141: Specific Homepage entry for abandoned software
On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 07:29:28PM -0500, Jonathan Yu wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > I would like to propose the following extension to "5.6.23.", the
> > "Homepage" header line:
> >
> > ---
> > If no homepage exists, e.g. because the software is abandoned and
> > vanished off the net, "None" can be specified.
> > ---
>
> While I see the point in having something like this, perhaps some
> standard page (hosted on the Debian servers somewhere) informing users
> that the software has been abandoned (and perhaps pointing to a Google
> cache/Web Archive cache of the original site, or other relevant
> information) would provide more benefit.
>
> In general, I think it's a good idea to move away from
> abandoned/unsupported software -- if you wish to continue supporting
> abandoned software, you should fork it/adopt the project upstream.
Nowadays, software homepage almost never disappear. Developers have little
incentive to delete the homepage of their abandonned projects, and major code
hosting website (sourceforge, etc.) almost never remove dead projects. So the
absence of a webpage is not a good indicator whether a project is dead or
alive (it is more likely the software never add a webpage).
And that do not seem to be Moritz intent, though the bug title might induce
to think otherwise.
Cheers,
--
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>
Imagine a large red swirl here.
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