A call to interested developers: maintainers wanted

[beckermr]

Right now this project has only one person who has ownership on the org and can commit to the repo, leaving it susceptible to the same issue as proplot (namely that one person disappearing).

We should add others to avoid the same mistakes as in the past.

I am happy to be added myself.

[beckermr]

cc @cvanelteren

[cvanelteren]

I will add you as admin @beckermr 💪

[cvanelteren]

We should perhaps also draft up some guidelines for this in the future: when or how does one obtain clearance right (such as admin).

[cvanelteren]

Leaving this open for now if potential maintainers want to join.

[beckermr]

Yeah that's a good idea. A formal governance model is probably a good idea. There are lots of guides out there on how to do this.

[beckermr]

You added me to a team called admins but I still cannot commit to the repp. Can you make me an org admin at this url https://github.com/orgs/Ultraplot/people?

[beckermr]

@cvanelteren I am still neither an owner of the org or an admin on the repo. Can you please fix this?

[cvanelteren]

Hmm thought I did this yesterday. You are definitely on the list now, can you verify?

[beckermr]

Yep I am now an admin of the repo. I also think projects like this should have more than one owner of the org.

[cvanelteren]

I agree but for now let's focus on getting this off the ground.

[beckermr]

I don't understand the hesitation here and think this is a mistake.

Part of getting a project off the ground as a group is adding more than one owner to eliminate the risk that access to project resources would be lost if a developer needs to step away. Developers step away for all kinds of reasons (too busy, health issues, other priorities, etc.) and this happens a lot. conda-forge has around 30 github org owners and core devs come and go on a pretty regular basis. Proplot made this error around ownership and access early on and instead of it living on, we're now in the situation where we've made a hard fork. This is a highly undesirable outcome, but a necessary action in some cases.

I strongly urge you to reconsider.

[cvanelteren]

I will draft up outlines for the project governance prior to adding new owners. I agree that we should prevent the previous situation from happening, but we may (and likely have) different opinions on what ought and is. We are in a tricky situation that neither of us are the original creators, and we should diligently chart out a new course (see #1). I appreciate your patience and understanding in this process.

[beckermr]

I going to step away from dev here for a while, but I thought it'd be good to explain myself. I very much appreciate the effort of @cvanelteren and those who have submitted PRs. However,

• PRs are still being merged without review
• given my understanding of our collective knowledge of the codebase, changes are being made too aggressively without enough testing

My intent in spending my development time here was to help bring stability to the project and I don't think my time can be spent effectively given the current development model.

I really do appreciate the work here and wish everyone well. I'm also open to picking up dev again should the issues above be addressed.

[cvanelteren]

I appreciate you sharing your thoughts and concerns. I understand your perspective about wanting to ensure stability and proper review processes. While I may work at a faster pace than what you're used to, this doesn't mean we're compromising on quality. To address your specific points: 1. While PRs might be merged quickly, they are being reviewed - I personally test and review each contribution carefully. Perhaps we can make this process more transparent. 2. Regarding aggressive changes - I agree that stability is crucial. However, the project needed significant updates to move forward, and sometimes that requires bold steps. I'm confident in the testing we're doing, but I'm open to discussing additional testing protocols if you have specific suggestions. If you'd like to continue contributing, I'm very open to discussing how we can better align our development approaches. Perhaps we could establish some formal guidelines that make everyone comfortable while maintaining momentum. The door remains open for your return, and I'd welcome your expertise in helping shape our development process going forward.