Request to take over Image Title

Ok, 20 weeks and no reply - I think this constitutes "Abandoned". ;-)

Can I please take over this module so our D6 port of this can go ahead and we can add block titles as a feature?

The page you refer to is this, I presume?
http://drupal.org/node/251466

It says:

If you are a developer and would like to take over maintainership of the project:

1. File an issue in that project's queue under the "support request" category stating your request to take over maintainership. If you have a patch for the module, mention that as well, as it shows you are already working on the code. For the title, use something like Offering to maintain PROJECT_NAME. By putting the project name in the title, you can catch the attention of people reading via the global tracker.
   Another way to try to get the attention of the module developer, is by using the druplicon bot on irc chat on either the #drupal or #drupal-support channels. If the maintainer has an IRC nickname listed on their user profile page, the druplicon bot can be tasked with notifying the maintainer by issuing a command similar to the following:

   Druplicon: tell hunmaat that I am willing to be a co-maintainer/maintainer of the abc module, view http://drupal.org/node/1029348

2. Wait two weeks to give the maintainer time to respond.
3. If there is no response or if the maintainer responds and gives the ok, move the issue to the webmasters queue to bring it to the attention of someone with access to make the change. Please include a link back to the project page to make it easier for the admin.

It doesn't say "you should also contact the maintainer"... It says *if* they have an IRC nick (and this user does not) then you might try pinging them in IRC. But I couldn't. Because they don't. Sure, I didn't mention the module name in the title, but *20 weeks*?? Come on... =/

Anyways, I guess we'll leave it for another 2 weeks, but we did also try and email the developer, *months* ago, and got no response - so this is clearly abandoned, as are all the other projects against this user's account. He seems to post some dev code (if that) - probably enough to get things working for his specific case - then disappear. Take a look at his other issue queues.

Link to module, for reference: http://drupal.org/project/image_title

I said in #3, we did try to email him from the contact form. Ages ago.

Actually, reviewed my emails and found a reply from Deepak, dated 21st Oct 2008 (more than a year ago) saying he was away for 15 days but would commit asap. He never did! He also never replied to subsequent emails.

So there have been ample efforts to contact him.

Thanks kiamlaluno. Though I still think he's more than had his chances already...! =P

@dksdev01, assuming you do actually make an appearance, please be honest about your ability to maintain this module. We asked you in October of 2008 if you would review and commit our D6 port. You said you would and didn't. I won't presume to guess why, but if you simply don't have time, please at least agree to making me a co-maintainer so *someone* is looking after this module! It's no good to anyone if you come along and say "don't worry, I'll do it next week..." then disappear off the face of the planet like you did last time... This is a good potential module and people are queueing up to use it and improve upon it, but it's dead as long as it doesn't have an active maintainer. =(

Hi Deepak,

There's nothing wrong with being busy. There's also nothing wrong with sharing the maintenance of a module. I'm too busy to look after all my modules, so when someone says "hey, need some help?" I lay out the ground rules and give them CVS access. I would urge you to do the same.

What p*sses people off is disappearing for months on end and not looking after module, and *NOT* sharing the maintenance even though people are volunteering to help! THAT'S annoying. It's 18 months since we first saw Image Title and 15 months since we presented a working D6 port, and not a single commit, in spite of email saying you would? I hope this won't happen again - mainly because it's totally unnecessary.

If you add me to CVS I will happily look after the Drupal 6 branch. Up to you, for now, but my CVS name is 'rareface' ... (don't ask!)

=)

Indeed. That D6 port has been production live here for over a year:
http://www.defaqto.com/

And I'd like to add block title support. =)

Ah, sorry - seems it wants the d.o username, not CVS (I forgot that) e.g. greg.harvey ...

Ok, so here we are, two months on. Maintainer appears after a year in the wilderness, applies a few patches, promises to do better, etc. etc. Then nothing. I'm back here again because I found this comment: http://drupal.org/node/221854#comment-2732272

The image_title module I couldn't get to work properly under Drupal 6 and nobody responded to my issue request

So I checked it out, and sure enough: #714372: D6 port doesn't seem to work properly

Two months without a whisper, in an issue queue with just TWO open issues? And a support request unanswered, not even so much as a "I'm kinda busy right now", for over a month? Clearly the module is not being maintained.

I really don't know what we have to do to get this module properly maintained. You won't take it off this guy, he flat refuses to have co-maintainers (see #17) but he doesn't maintain it either - should I just start a new project? At this rate it looks like you'll force me to. It's no good having a maintainer that only shows up periodically when one of the Drupal webmasters lights a fire under him by email, promises to change the world and then disappears again. That doesn't help anyone. I've already talked about this in #13 in this very thread.

This issue is becoming a farce. Meanwhile people are using nasty template hacks and custom code in their own modules to work around functionality this module can and does solve already! If I wasn't trying to keep Drupal.org as clean as possible, I'd have started a new project with my code ages ago. I'm doing the right thing here, offering to help out with an existing module and it seems futile.

Thanks. Deepak has re-appeared again now btw, I see from the other issue, but not made any comment or attempt to contact anyone about this? I guess he saw this thread sparking up again and dealt with the issue queue, perhaps not, perhaps it was coincidence (though I'm not a big believer in that).

Either way, I don't really want to work crossed-purposes - I'm a bit in "no mans land" as to what to do. Being an "unofficial" co-maintainer without buy-in from the actual maintainer is no good, because I don't know what he's doing and he doesn't know what I'm doing. There's no way we can work to improve or even bug-fix the module if I'm frozen out. In a case like this, me having CVS access doesn't really achieve anything, because I daren't use it! (Though I do appreciate catch jumping in here and bumping the status.)

The module needs either:

1. Myself and Deepak to work together in a meaningful way as co-maintainers
2. Deepak to start being a proper maintainer, watch his issue queue and at least respond in a timely manor and plan future development
3. A new maintainer entirely (if it were me, I'd immediately seek a co-maintainer anyway)

As I noted before, I don't care which of the above happens. Frankly, I'd much prefer option 2, because I don't have much time either so if it doesn't involve me then all the better, but history keeps repeating itself and Deepak doesn't seem very interested in option 1. =(

Anyway, onwards and upwards...

Well, as of now:

- there is no contact from the maintainer
- I am not the maintainer and don't know what the maintainer is actually doing
- the maintainer is NOT maintaining the module effectively
- there is no development plan and I cannot make one
- the Drupal.org webmasters seem to be unable/unwilling to do anything further

So it's back to plan B - new project that we can maintain properly.

This situation is crazy, but there's nothing more I can do here. This is the d.o webmasters adding to the Drupal module soup through inaction. Sad, but there you have it.

Fixed, this issue is not. Dead, it clearly is, along with the Image Title project.