Hello! I currently maintain a small/medium-small open source project. I know I have some active users. It’s been fun, but I no longer feel like I can properly maintain it. I’ve been considering two options: archive the project or transfer the ownership to someone else.
Does anyone have any experience doing either of these things?
Transferring the project to someone else who would actively maintain the project seems like a good option. However, what would that process look like? How do I vet or trust random people on the internet? What if I transfer it to someone and then they add a bitcoin miner a year later?
I have gifted several repos to the community writ large… Transferring to a stranger is dangerous. Shutting it down is letting the community disolve into the broader ocean of OSS. If you care deeply about this project (AND are not burned out, this is key) I would highly recommend transparency first. Edit your main readme or make a post on your issues/forum/etc, whatever is the most popular, asking for community leaders to step up in taking the reigns. Promote one to many (depending on how popular this repo is) contributers to become stewards, where they are essentially granted all permissions except a rolling a new version, retain that power for yourself and over a year or so you approve releases but take no active part in development. Once one to many contributers assume the ownership role (in spirit only as you hold the release keys) and are actively progressing what used to be your baby, then and only then do you pick the best of the worst (lol sorry RLM is always in the back of my mind) to be your true successor - handing over the last of your exclusive permissions and breaking a bottle of champage on the figurative new ship.
I wish you the best and I thank you deeply from my heart for contributing your labor and love to the OSS community.