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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?

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[-] Dave@lemmy.nz 15 points 1 day ago

If you're open to it, I've seen maintainers go to "maintenance mode".

Write it high in the readme so people see it, and write what it means: basically that you're not accepting PRs, you're not developing new features, but you will do bug fixes and basic maintenance (dependency updates, etc).

this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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