Taking over a project's namespace

There are obsolete projects hosted on drupal.org that are no longer useful. People who want to create a new project that uses the same namespace as an obsolete project can take the project over following these steps:

• File an issue in the project's queue, stating your interest in taking over the project namespace. Point out the motivation behind your request. For the title, use Taking over the <project_name> namespace. (Replace <project_name> with the project name shown on the project page, not its machine name.)
• If enabled, use the Contact tab on the project maintainers' profile pages to ask to take over the project and suggest posting a comment on the issue you created. We need a comment on that issue to see what the decision of the project maintainers has been. This step is not mandatory, but it can speed up the process to take over the namespace.
• If you contacted the project maintainers, report in the issue summary you did that and how (for example, via email or via Slack).
• If the project maintainers reply and set you up as a project owner, the issue is fixed; nothing more needs to be done.
• If the project maintainers agree to make you the new owner but cannot change the project owner, or they agree to your request but do not make any change, create a new issue in the Drupal.org project maintainership issue queue. Please include a link to the project page. If the project maintainers privately agree to transfer the ownership, ask for a comment on the issue you created.
• If the project maintainers do not reply in two weeks (14 days) since the request appeared in the project issue queue, create a new issue in the Drupal.org project maintainership issue queue with the same title used for the issue in the project queue. Please include a link to the project page and a link to the issue created in the project queue. Project moderators will normally try to contact project maintainers as an extra safeguard, unless it is evident they are no longer active in the Drupal community, giving fourteen (14) days to reply to the message they sent via the Contact tab.
• Leave a comment 14 days after the project maintainers have been contacted by project moderators, if none of the project maintainers rejected the request. The comment will show you are still interested in the request, and it will allow project moderators to notice they need to take action on the issue. Without that comment, no change will be done to project maintainers.

When a project is taken over, we do not want to lose historic code: Existing releases and Git commits will not be deleted. Once transferred, the new maintainers should start a new branch. A note should also be put on the project page (for example in the Credits section) where it is explained that the previous project has been repurposed. Existing releases can be marked as unsupported.

In the case a project has not had any code committed after at least three (3) months since the project creation, that namespace becomes eligible for a transfer of ownership following the procedure above. If the project maintainers of an empty project are still active on Drupal.org, there are some additional considerations.

• If at all possible, the existing project maintainers should be engaged with to voluntarily grant ownership.
• If the existing project maintainers are working towards a public release in good faith, they should be granted an extension to the three months window. Some examples of good faith efforts include:
• The existing project maintainers are actively developing the module in private, but a public release is not yet created
• The existing project maintainers are waiting for permission from a client to contribute a module back to the community
• The existing project maintainers are actively recruiting contributors
• The existing project maintainers are actively updating a development roadmap

Reasons that are not sufficient to hold a namespace include: * Holding a namespace just for the sake of holding it. This is already against Drupal.org policy, whether the maintainer is active. * Holding a namespace because there is a privately used module with the same name, which is not intended to be shared with the community.

If after evaluating these circumstances, project moderators believe that ownership of the namespace should be transferred, then it can be transferred. The original project maintainers may remain on the project if they are willing to collaborate in good faith with the new maintainer.

The Drupal Association strongly recommends against using a trademark in a project name or short name. In the event that an existing project is using a trademark in the short name there are a few paths forward.

• Preferably, the existing project maintainers and the trademark owner work together, perhaps creating a new branch for the trademark owner's work.
• In the case the existing project maintainers do not want to give ownership to the trademark holder there are two options.
• The existing project maintainers can create a new project with a namespace that does not include the trademark and move over their code; the trademark owner will start working on a new branch. This prevents disruption for existing users under the namespace.
• (Strongly not preferred) If the existing project maintainers do not want the trademark owner to have access to the repository, an exception can be made for the Drupal Association Staff to change the project short name. This will be disruptive to current users. The trademark holder can then create a new project with their trademark.