I would like to submit a change proposal for the unresponsive package maintainer policy. The policy now says [1] "''File a bug against the package in Bugzilla asking for the maintainer to respond. This bug should list the outstanding issues they need to address. This is a must.''"
I think this kind of bug should not be filled against the single package, but something like against infrastructure. Also it should block all bugs assigned to that user.
This can be useful if a user maintains several packages. This way all bugs receive a notification that the "unresponsive package maintainer" policy was started for that maintainer.
For an example, I've just opened such a bug [2] for boinc-client maintainer that owns several other packages with open bugs and no activity since May.
I've opened a thread in the Fedora Devel mailing list to discuss this proposal (with very little interest from other users...) [3].
[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Package_maintainer_policy [2] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1039258 [3] https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2013-December/192791.html
I meant to reply to the thread, but can here I guess...
Some issues with this proposal:
It doesn't handle well the case of a user who actually is active, just doesn't care about that package or specific bug.
Blocking all bugs assigned to the user would generate a large amount of emails/notices. Everyone on all those bugs could get a email about it.
We could I suppose use the 'distribution' component for this, but if we did, we would need to make sure whoever files the bug cc's the maintainer (they could forget, but it's automatic when filed against one of their packages).
Replying to [comment:1 kevin]:
Some issues with this proposal: It doesn't handle well the case of a user who actually is active, just doesn't care about that package or specific bug.
Well, before opening the unresponsive maintainer bug we already must check user activity with "fedora active user" or in koji, git or other bugzilla tickets. If the user is active for other packages we can specify in the bug that we're starting the unresponsive maintainer policy only for the specific package. But why he isn't responding to bugs on packages he maintains? (He can orphan the package or simply respond to the bug saying "I don't want to fix it")
True. But this way everyone waiting for that maintainer response is aware what's going on with his bug.
At yesterday's FESCo meeting it was decided:
Reject this for now, until there are signs that his one example is becoming a common problem, and ask him to come back asking for remedy for his specific problem on an individual basis. (+1:6, 0:0, -1:0) (abadger1999, 19:19:18)
The Unresponsive Maintainer policy has a mass orphaning section which is what the decision refers to with "remedy for his specific problem"
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Policy_for_nonresponsive_package_maintainers#Notes_for_Mass_Orphaning
Login to comment on this ticket.