The future of the project (imminent archival)

cmarmo · August 25, 2023, 1:07pm

For those interested in orbital dynamics tools in python, poliastro in particular.

The future of the project (imminent archival)

opened 12:21PM - 24 Aug 23 UTC

Hello everyone, After my departure as maintainer of the project https://www.p…oliastro.space/blog/2022/12/21/juan-luis-steps-down/ and @jorgepiloto recent decision to do the same https://www.poliastro.space/blog/2023/08/22/jorge-martinez-steps-down/, poliastro effectively has zero maintainers at the moment, and it's unlikely either of us will return in the short term, or ever. I have been approached by various people asking about the future of the project. For purely sentimental reasons, I am most likely going to archive the repository, add a "not maintained" badge https://unmaintained.tech/, not accept any more releases on PyPI or conda-forge, and notify NumFOCUS. There are several drawbacks to this. The project has reached some visibility and the "brand" is very recognizable (although I have very little visibility of who is using the project at the moment, or what alternatives exist), so archiving the project would mean that, if someone would want to continue its path, they would need to fork and forge a new identity. In addition, that new project would surely not have the immediate support of NumFOCUS. At the same time, there are very strong reasons to do this. I have been very opinionated (which became a burden in the last years of the project) and at the same time I had a crisp vision of what I wanted to do with poliastro (you can just have a look at the milestones or the existing issues in this repository). poliastro is "my baby" and, even if I archive the repository, the code is MIT licensed and anyone can copy-paste it, provided that they respect the terms of the license (most importantly: retain attribution). So, beyond some upfront admin cost in setting a new brand, I don't see this as the end of the world. The obvious alternative is to grant someone admin rights in this repository. poliastro has had many contributors apart from @jorgepiloto and myself, and there are some people that could potentially be good stewards of the project. But again, what if I dislike the new direction of the project? Or, most likely, what if someone says "I can do it", and then they don't show up? (I have been guilty of this in the past for other projects, so I completely understand that this can, and does, happen). I'll leave this issue open for 1-2 months to give the poliastro community a voice, possibly for the last time. If you just want to leave a "thank you" note or say goodbye, that's very much encouraged and appreciated. If I can't be persuaded otherwise, the project will be archived after that period of time. To finish with a sweeter tone, thank you to each and every person that used, enjoyed, and contributed to poliastro ❤️