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Discussion on: When is the right time to fork?

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johnfound profile image
johnfound

If you are the only contributor, why not to talk about becoming a maintainer of the project, if the original authors have no time and/or will to maintain it on regular basis?

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jhuebel profile image
Jason Huebel

I followed your advice and asked to become a maintainer. The owner agreed. So now I'm wreaking havoc on the repo. ;-)

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johnfound profile image
johnfound

Congrats! I am actually not a forking antagonist. The opposite, I think that the forking is good for the projects.

But still if the fork can be avoided, it is better to avoid it.

Especially if the initial author decided to retire. This way he will feel better knowing that someone will keep developing the project.

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jhuebel profile image
Jason Huebel

I'm not sure if my goals align with the original project's goals. In particular, I would be adding integration with a vertical app I use at work that isn't commonly used outside of our industry.

I've opened an issue on the project requesting maintainer access. But I mentioned in that issue that I still planned on making breaking changes in future versions. So we'll see what the project owner says. Maybe he considers it an abandoned project. 🤷🏼‍♂️