[Catalog-sig] (counter-)Proposal: Discouraging removal of packagers and revisions (Was Re: disallowing the removal of packages?)

[Benji York]

On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 9:24 AM, Jim Fulton <jim at zope.com> wrote:

> 1. I think if package maintainers actually knew that removing old
> revisions did harm, most would not delete revisions or packages unless
> they thought it was necessary.  I think most people who remove old
> revisions do so for cleanliness, not appreciating that there is a
> downside.

> PROPOSAL
> =========
>
> I propose we *try* simply adding an informative confirmation when
> removing a package or revision that simply explains that removal may
> inconvenience people relying on the package or the specific version.
> I predict that there will be a lot fewer annoying removals of we do
> this.

+1  This is cheap to do and doesn't restrict a package owner's ability
to remove a package if they really feel the need.

It'd be really nice if we could quantify the number of packages
removed before and after the change, but I'm not sure we collect
enough data to do so.

-- 
Benji York