> TL;DR: pgBackRest is no longer being maintained. If you fork pgBackRest, please select a new name for your project.

> I imagine at some point pgBackRest will be forked, but that will be a new project with new maintainers, and they will need to build trust the same way we did.

I completely understand having to back out of maintenance on an OSS project, but why also slam the door closed on someone taking over? There may be someone very qualified willing to step up, and that could give your existing users continuity.

This feels analgous to deciding to stop maintaining a community garden, but rather than let your neighbor step up, you decide to salt the ground so it can never grow there again, telling your neighbors "you can pull up my plants and move them, but you can't use all the ground and roots that are already there." It just feels bitter.

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Latty 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

To me it reads as being worried that someone malicious could step in and use the project's name to do harm. If you don't have someone within the project with trust built ready-to-go, establishing that trust enough to hand over the project is a big task.

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freedomben 5 hours ago | parent [-]

I totally agree, that is a huge risk. But what if someone from the postgres team decided to step up and maintain it? I'm not saying that's likely, but it is possible for a very popular tool like this. With the way the project exited now, that would not at all be an option. Obviously if postgres themselves decided to do it, they wouldn't need the previous credibility so this isn't the best example

	▲	leoc 4 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The Apache Foundation used to step in in this kind of situation, didn't it? Thugh maybe pgbackrest isn't quite big and official enough to be the kind of software which Apache takes on, and one certainly hears (increasing?) grumbles about Apache's stewardship.
	▲	_flux 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		If someone really wants to continue the name, they can of course ask the author; maybe they have a compelling case.

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rolfvandekrol 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

From the story told in the README it is clear this is a project ran by a single person. There is no wider maintenance team that can be trusted with continuing the project. So anyone who offers to take up the maintenance will be unknown to the current maintainer and cannot automatically be trusted.

The alternative to this seemingly bitter approach is handing over the trust they built to some unknown person who can do whatever they want with the data in a lot of PostgreSQL databases around the world. I think I prefer the bitterness here over blind trust.

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freedomben 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Sure, but what if someone from the postgres team decided they wanted to step up? The door is completely shut for that now. And if we can't trust someone from the postgres team to do it, then who can we trust?

	▲	vova_hn2 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> The door is completely shut for that now. No, it's not. You can still contact the author and ask them to transfer the name to you.

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AndyNemmity 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It can still be forked. There is no salting the ground here. If you maintain the project and have for a long time, and you wish to stop, you can stop.

If no one cared enough to support the project, why does anyone care enough now? It all sounds hollow. Nothing bitter about it.

When you work on a project, any project, you have a responsibility. At some point we all can stop, and become free to not have that responsibility.

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aaaronic 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

See: "It's OK to abandon your side-project (2024)": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47918961 (also on today's frontpage)

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remus 6 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think this is overly harsh. After the guy has been working on the project for such a long period a handover would inevitably be a long process, not least to ensure whoever took over didn't abuse the existing user-base. Completely fair if the existing maintainer doesn't want to take on this work, and arguably a fork forces consumers to properly consider that someone else is in charge now.

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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