| Re: [eclipse.org-architecture-council] Encourage removal of inactive committers |
All,
As a data point, here is what the Apache Software Foundation says about committer retirement in their FAQ:
Is there a set term for acting as a Committer? Will I have to be elected again?
Committer status and merit never expire. If you become inactive for a time (usually six months or more), your account may be deactivated for security reasons. Most projects allow reactivation of committer status by application to the PMC.
Some projects use the concept of emeritus committer for those who have contributed to the project but can no longer can give much time to it.
HTH
Hi,
On bigger or older projects, I see a recurring anti-pattern that some committers are still listed although they have not contributed anything for several years.I'm aware project teams have the capability to remove committers, but I find that this is not very usual although it's a valid cleanup that is beneficial for the project (inactive committers may forgot to vote for other committers or important decisions, so they basically slow down decision making without providing value for the project). One reason why this may be unusual is that some more active but newer contributors may feel uncomfortable removing commit rights to their "elders" (which sometimes have even been mentors) and don't do the cleanup as it could be interpreted as a lack of respect. At least, that's how I felt several years ago when I first started about removing some commit rights, it's not an easy thing to do morally, although it clearly appeared as what's best for the project.So I think the EDP and related tools could maybe make this task simpler to project teams.
EDP currently says:"""The Project Leads are responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the Project. A Committer who is disruptive, does not participate actively, or has been inactive for an extended period may have his or her commit status revoked by the Project Leads. Unless otherwise specified, "an extended period" is defined as "no activity for more than six months"."""which is good, however, I suggest we extend this power to PMC and even EMO, by appending something like:"The project lead, PMC or EMO are in charge of maintaining the list of active committers and are all allowed to revoke committers status if activity criteria defined earlier are not met."
From here, it would be nice to have tools to encourage projects in doing the cleanup; some possible ways to do that:* on the `who` page of the project (eg https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/eclipse.platform/who ), show a "Inactive for ... months" warning on individual who have been inactive for "an extended period".* Have some bi-yearly message sent automatically from the PMI to the project mailing-lists to remind which committers are inactive in practice and remind them about the EDP part about activity being required for keep commit rights* If some committers have not been active for multiple "extended periods" and were already notified several times about it, EMO would automatically remove them as committers.
What do you think?
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Mike Milinkovich
Executive Director | Eclipse Foundation AISBL
Twitter:@mmilinkov