Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by nullterminated 3933 days ago
isn't the raison d'etre of foundations such as Apache to see to it that this sort of thing doesn't happen to its products?
2 comments

No, it is not the raison d'etre of Apache.

See: http://community.apache.org/newbiefaq.html#NewbieFAQ-Howarep...

Some key parts of that:

* "How are projects managed in The Apache Software Foundation? ... Apache Projects work because people like you participate constructively within them!"

* "How do I get user support for an ASF project? Everyone active in ASF projects is here as a volunteer, nobody is paid to provide support here. ... Remember that Apache committers are generally working as volunteers on Apache mailing lists."

Projects survive on volunteerism. Apache doesn't support the projects themselves.

However, that does not mean they are fully unobligated.

In the Code of Conduct: http://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/conduct.html it states that those in all spaces managed by ASF strive to:

"7. Step down considerately. Members of every project come and go. When somebody leaves or disengages from the project they should tell people they are leaving and take the proper steps to ensure that others can pick up where they left off. In doing so, they should remain respectful of those who continue to participate in the project and should not misrepresent the project's goals or achievements. Likewise, community members should respect any individual's choice to leave the project."

Based on that there could be grounds to have them stop hosting Open Office or any other project if it has become a liability because their committers have disengaged. If you want to get involved, write the president https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Gardler and tell him about this at: president@apache.org

However, what it means to be disengaged is up for debate. You might also suggest that Apache reconsider the expectations they set of project owners.

The amount of half-finished and unmaintained projects hosted by Apache is remarkable.
Yep and they refuse to accept issues at GitHub and their GitHub repos are all just mirrors, so they make it really hard to contribute.