Re: long list of give away or orphaned packages

[Brian White <bcwhite@verisim.com>]

> the list of debian packges needing a new maintainer is growing all the
> time. so - what about removeing some packages, if they are no longer
> maintained, or (better) moving them into section contrib (or a new
> section "orphaned" ?).

There is a "project/orphaned" directory where things can be put when
no longer supported.  This will not be part of the distribution but
rather a holding place for packages so that the work done on them does
not simply get lost.

One possiblity to encourage maintenence would be to simply move all
orphaned packages to this location after one month on the "orphaned"
list.  This would encourage those who do use the package to become
the maintainer just to keep it in the main distribution.

Also, those package that have others depending upon them would likely
be picked up even faster since the maintainers of the dependant packages
would have to do something or lose the ability to include their own
packages.

Perhaps we could integrate this with the "new developer" screening.  To
become a new developer, you must take over one of the orphaned packages.

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@verisim.com )

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