[hk__2]

> Is that common to only communicate only through email/github?

Yes. I’ve joined half a dozen open-source projects of various sizes (from 100 to 30k stars on GitHub) without ever calling anyone; written communication is the standard.

[bogwog]

Sure, but handing over maintainership is a different situation from accepting a few PRs

[saalweachter]

Have you ever interacted with a volunteer organization?

If you show up for a tea & cookies meet-and-greet and aren't careful, they'll nominate you for chair just because no one else wants it, and "showed up once to a scheduled event" is a higher bar than half the other members have met in while.

[mardifoufs]

I don't think he ever fully gave up his "top maintainer" status or gave away the repo. He just let Jian have defacto maintainership because no one else was really contributing