[Catalog-sig] Contacting package owner

[Ian Bicking]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:
> Jeremy Kloth wrote:
> 
>>As the authors of 4Suite, we would like to add our most recent release to PyPI 
>>but cannot do so as we didn't add the original package.  Is there as way to 
>>contact the PyPI owner?  I've searched the interface but to no avail.
> 
> 
> You can guess from the account name of the owner: Google tells you that
> "aaronsw" most likely is Aaron Swartz (just ask "aaronsw 4Suite").
> 
> In general, no, this is not possible, but probably should be - please
> add a feature request to sf.net/projects/pypi.
> 
> It might also be sensible to regularly (e.g. once a year) send a
> keep-alive message to all registered users; if the message bounces,
> we could remove them from PyPI, and if that causes a package
> to be without owner, to remove the package as well.

We shouldn't get rid of packages unless the site disappears (though we 
could mark the package as possibly orphaned).  Or the owner maybe could 
become null, and allow another person to take the project over.

In most cases I'd rather anyone be able to edit a package, with the 
owner being notified.  Even when the owner hasn't disappeared, in many 
open source projects the person who updates the package for one release 
won't be the same person as for the next release.  Complicated 
permission systems seem unnecessary -- (fairly) open editing with 
notification should be enough.

Or, notification with required confirmation, where if the author doesn't 
explicitly reject a change it gets put in by default.

-- 
Ian Bicking  /  ianb at colorstudy.com  /  http://blog.ianbicking.org