CGI::Simple::Standard and CGI::Alert authors are unresponsive

Hi all,

I'm disappointed to see CPAN's total lack of a resolution policy if
authors of buggy (but otherwise useful) modules become unresponsive, so
I'm posting here as I have no idea what else I can do. I've been unable
to contact the authors of the two modules listed in the subject by their
CPAN listed e-mail address (after waiting weeks), and I've found very
nasty bugs in both their modules. What can I do to get them fixed? At
the moment, I'm having to maintain a local copy of both of these modules
because I can't use the buggy vesions currently up on CPAN.


Best regards,
Jeremy Morton (Jez)

Re: CGI::Simple::Standard and CGI::Alert authors are unresponsive

"Jeremy Morton" wrote in message
news:OZOqi.1310$mo.596@newsfe4-win.ntli.net...
> Hi all,
>
> I'm disappointed to see CPAN's total lack of a resolution policy if
> authors of buggy (but otherwise useful) modules become unresponsive, so
> I'm posting here as I have no idea what else I can do. I've been unable
> to contact the authors of the two modules listed in the subject by their
> CPAN listed e-mail address (after waiting weeks), and I've found very
> nasty bugs in both their modules. What can I do to get them fixed? At
> the moment, I'm having to maintain a local copy of both of these modules
> because I can't use the buggy vesions currently up on CPAN.
>

Often when authors become unresponsive it means that they have abandoned the
module. However, it seems that the CGI::Simple author (Andy Armstrong) is
still actively maintaining that module - it was updated just over a
fortnight ago. How have you tried to contact him ?

Some things to do in order to attract the attention of an author are to :
1) submit a bug report to rt.cpan.org (
http://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=CGI-Simple ) - for which
you'll need a Bitcard or PAUSE account;
2) contact the author via email at the address given in the module's
documentation;
3) post to http://www.cpanforum.com/dist/CGI-Simple (as the author seems to
have subscribed)

There *is* a procedure one can go thru to take over the maintainership of an
abandoned module (and it looks like CGI::Alert may have been abandoned as
there's no sign of activity from that module's author for about 3 years).
However, whilst I'm sure I've seen accounts of what that procedure is, I'm
damned if I can find it ... which is annoying. If you search you may well
find it ... I'm hopelesss when it comes to finding stuff :-)

Cheers,
Rob

Re: CGI::Simple::Standard and CGI::Alert authors are unresponsive

"Sisyphus" wrote in message
news:46ac801b$0$14405
..
..
>
> There *is* a procedure one can go thru to take over the maintainership of
> an abandoned module (and it looks like CGI::Alert may have been abandoned
> as there's no sign of activity from that module's author for about 3
> years).
> However, whilst I'm sure I've seen accounts of what that procedure is, I'm
> damned if I can find it ... which is annoying. If you search you may well
> find it ... I'm hopelesss when it comes to finding stuff :-)
>


Here's pretty much what I was looking for:

==========================================
How do I adopt or take over a module already on CPAN?

The easiest way to take over a module is to have the current module
maintainer either make you a co-maintainer or transfer the module to you.

If you can't reach the author for some reason (e.g. email bounces), the
PAUSE admins at modules@perl.org can help. The PAUSE admins treat each case
individually.

1.. Get a login for the Perl Authors Upload Server (PAUSE) if you don't
already have one: http://pause.perl.org
2.. Write to modules@perl.org explaining what you did to contact the
current maintainer. The PAUSE admins will also try to reach the maintainer.
3.. Post a public message in a heavily trafficed site announcing your
intention to take over the module.
4.. Wait a bit. The PAUSE admins don't want to act too quickly in case the
current maintainer is on holiday. If there's no response to private
communication or the public post, a PAUSE admin can transfer it to you.
===========================================

The above has been added to perlfaq 7, and the CPAN (
http://www.cpan.org/misc/cpan-faq.html ) and PAUSE (
http://pause.perl.org/pause/query?ACTION=pause_04about ) FAQs.

Cheers,
Rob

Re: CGI::Simple::Standard and CGI::Alert authors are unresponsive

Sisyphus wrote:
[...]
> 2.. Write to modules@perl.org explaining what you did to contact the
> current maintainer. The PAUSE admins will also try to reach the maintainer.

I e-mailed them too. Got no response. Yay.

--
Best regards,
Jeremy Morton (Jez)