If you know of an open source project whose organizer has gotten really busy tha

Question

If you know of an open source project whose organizer

has gotten really busy that he doesn't maintain it that much
and he's the type of guy that doesn't accept contributions until a few months later (busy I guess) if at all
and the project is starting to flounder
would you fork this project, give it a new name, and continue working hard on it and build a new community around it that's more encouraging to code contributions? Basically a better managed project since the concern now is bad management.

Explanation / Answer

One should start by seeing if the current maintainer would be willing to let you take over. Since the issue is that he his busy, I would expect him to be willing to hand it off. If that works it is better for everyone involved.

If that fails, I'd suggest collecting contributions into a distribution that you maintain without making it a separate project. That way you work within the existing community. The hope is that eventually the maintainer will see the light and accept your offer to take over.

If that fails, fork it. At that point you have gained some visibility and I think you'll attract some of the original community. But at the same time, you have made it clear its not your desire to split the community.

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