As part of the effort to clean up the contributed_definitions directory of the repo it was determined that it is not easy to find out if a contributed definition is actually being referenced in the wild by a user, as a result to just remove the definition poses 2 problems,
- The abrupt un-announced removal may surprise facilities that are currently using it and break their workflow,
- It may be the case that although the definition may not be in use now due to loss of a champion for it, to remove it completely would be to remove any work that would have initially been put into it, and would therefore be lost if a champion for the definition was later found.
As an option to mitigate these 2 issues I propose that much like contributed_definitions is a staging area for promotion, there also be a staging area for demotion, a new directory called stagnant_contributions be created for this purpose where definitions deemed as most "likely unused" can be put indefinitely. If we hear back that the definitions was actually in use the file can be put back or promoted, also if someone comes along and wants to propose a definition that is already in or similar to one in the stagnant_contributions directory they would have the option of using it as a start and also view any GitHub issues/comments/discussion that would have been assigned to that definition so that the same dead ends are not traveled during its development, ultimately we would want to retain the github history.
As part of the effort to clean up the contributed_definitions directory of the repo it was determined that it is not easy to find out if a contributed definition is actually being referenced in the wild by a user, as a result to just remove the definition poses 2 problems,
As an option to mitigate these 2 issues I propose that much like contributed_definitions is a staging area for promotion, there also be a staging area for demotion, a new directory called stagnant_contributions be created for this purpose where definitions deemed as most "likely unused" can be put indefinitely. If we hear back that the definitions was actually in use the file can be put back or promoted, also if someone comes along and wants to propose a definition that is already in or similar to one in the stagnant_contributions directory they would have the option of using it as a start and also view any GitHub issues/comments/discussion that would have been assigned to that definition so that the same dead ends are not traveled during its development, ultimately we would want to retain the github history.