Open Ownership Pledge (finding co-maintainers)

Last updated on
14 July 2021

The text here is intended to be copy/pasted to a new issue Seeking new maintainer for the project you intend to apply the pledge on (details). So, read it as if it is on a project's issue page.

If you are thinking about taking over a module or theme but would like some guarantees before investing a lot of time, you can point the current owner to this page with a kind request to consider applying the pledge on the probably stalled project.

Introduction

The Open Ownership Pledge stimulates involvement of new developers in a project (module, theme) by the current maintainer's promise that supplied patches:

  • are reviewed as quickly as is reasonable
  • are committed with attribution, therefore showing on the profile page of the author
  • lead to co-maintainership for ANY issue tagged with the Open Ownership Pledge (the patch can then be committed by the author themself)
  • lead to ownership (lead maintainer) if done for ALL project issues tagged Open Ownership Pledge unless this issue is set to Fixed which probably means an ownership change took place based on this issue.

It stimulates project owners to handover ownership by:

  • being able to indicate issues to be solved first to:
    • boost development
    • test the capabilities of a potential new owner
  • providing some rules in the form of an oath by the new owner to guarantee good maintainership and continued development also after passing ownership.

How to apply for ownership or co-maintainership on a pledged project

Submit your patches for ALL (ownership) or ANY (co-maintainership) of the unresolved project issues that are tagged with the Open Ownership Pledge, these are the active child issues listed in the side bar on the right. Assign the issues to yourself to show others you are working on them (also un-assign if you become inactive on an issue). Once done add a comment. Sample text:

I want project ownership and I promise to abide to the conditions of the Open Ownership Pledge as described. I have provided patches for all of the corresponding issues.

OR

I want co-maintainership and I promise to abide to the conditions of the Open Ownership Pledge as described. I have provided patches for one of the corresponding issues.

Do the same in the corresponding issue in the Project Ownership queue.

Oath by the current owner (lead maintainer)

This project's current owner promises:

  • to transfer ownership to anyone that solves ALL issues tagged Open Ownership Pledge
  • that anyone solving ONE of those issues will be added as a CO-maintainer immediately to commit their patch themselves
  • to not remove any existing project maintainers and leave all their permissions as they are
  • to keep the note stating the original author, if present
  • to not remove the previous Supporting organizations, if present
  • to transfer ownership back to the last previous owner or by reopening this issue for an ownership change if the necessary time for maintainership can not be dedicated anymore
  • the ownership does not pass to someone that does not has a proven track record related to the module solving relative complex issues
  • to keep this pledge in place
  • to perform good maintainership.

The previous owners can and hopefully will remain active as co-maintainers and should not be removed, even if not active anymore.

What is good maintainership?

  • Review in timely manner any issues in Needs review status.
  • Supplied patches will be committed with attribution to the initial author when reaching RTBC. Just use the suggested commit message at the bottom of the issue (only visible for a maintainer).
  • Commit patches that reach a final RTBC status.
  • The dev version will be turned into a stable version on a regular basis if code changes were introduced providing a list of related issues in the release notes
  • Keep the project page, README and other docs up to date with any changes.
  • Recommended is furthermore to follow Best practices for co-maintaining projects | Drupal.org

After an ownership change

The Open Ownership Pledge still applies but should not be right away be open for another ownership change.

  1. Remove the notice on the project page (introduced with point #3 in the last section).
  2. Set the status of the project issue Seeking new maintainer to Fixed.
  3. Check if all the issues tagged Open Ownership Pledge are set as Fixed.
  4. Edit the project page and set the Maintenance status field back from Seeking new maintainer to Actively maintained.

Reopen for an ownership change

By the current owner

  • When there are enough new complex issues and the current owner is not able to give the project enough "love" anymore or just wants to hand the baton to someone capable. They can also contact the previous owners with a request to take over instead of opening for a new ownership change to someone new.

By the co-maintainers

  • If it appears development or maintenance has stalled for a substantial period and the current owner does not have objections or does not respond within two weeks on a proposal to reactivate this issue to seek a new maintainer.

Steps

  1. Select a series of unresolved relatively complex issues in the queue and tag them with Open Ownership Pledge.
  2. Set the status of the project issue Seeking new maintainer to Active.
  3. Do the same for the corresponding issue in the Project Ownership queue and set the issue component back to Needs maintainers. Obviously with a comment about the reason to seek a new maintainer (lack of time, just passing the baton to someone capable, etc.).
  4. Restore the notice on the project page.

How to add the pledge to your own project (for project maintainers)

  1. Open a new project issue Seeking new maintainer and copy/paste the text above.
  2. Select a series of unresolved relatively complex issues in the queue and tag them with the Open Ownership Pledge and set them with as parent page the issue above Seeking new maintainer
  3. Put a notice on the project page linking the last part to the newly created issue above. Sample text:

    This project can be taken over under the Open Ownership Pledge. Solve all the child issues of #2938240: Seeking new maintainer.

  4. Edit the project page and set the Maintenance status field to Seeking new maintainer.
  5. Open an issue in the Project Ownership queue with the Title set to Open Ownership Pledge for [My Project Name here]. Provide a link to your project and the newly created issue above. The issue component should be set to Needs maintainers. Sample text:

    #2938240: Seeking new maintainer
    Once the requirements of the Open Ownership Pledge are fulfilled I will apply for ownership transfer from myself to the new maintainer that solved all the corresponding issues in the issue queue.

    Once fulfilled the requirements, to transfer ownership:

    1. add a comment with for example the text:

      Please transfer ownership for the UpTime Widget module to Volodymyr Knyshuk (knyshuk.vova). He solved all the corresponding issues and has therefore shown particular interest in the module by investing his time and to have the capabilities needed to maintain the code.

    2. change the component to Ownership transfer
    3. set the status to Needs review so it gets noticed by a Drupal administrator to change ownership.

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