Define deprecation process

[jepfp]

User Story

As maintainer of an organizational project, I want to know the process of deprecating/archiving a project, so that I know what would happen in case I initiate it.

Approach (deliberately narrow)

The default is: the TSC does not initiate deprecation. A maintainer who answers the annual ping (see #210) and confirms they still care about the project — however busy they are — is done; that answer is sufficient on its own, nothing else happens.

The TSC only gets involved in two specific cases:

1. Voluntary retirement: a maintainer themselves asks the TSC/dedicated group for help retiring their project. The TSC assists on request, it does not propose this unprompted.
2. Fallback, no response at all: the annual ping from Self-attested maintenance status via MAINTAINERS.md + annual ping (organizational projects) #210 goes fully unanswered after the agreed number of reminders. This is the one case self-attestation structurally cannot cover — nobody is left to ask — and it is also where the foundation's own backstop responsibility (controlling the group id, security releases per typelevel/tsc#196) requires someone to act, since an unmaintained Organization Project left untouched quietly implies a support guarantee that no longer holds.

Activity level, release frequency, or any other "health" signal is explicitly not a trigger on its own — only confirmed non-response is.

Acceptance Criteria

• Default rule documented: the TSC does not initiate deprecation for a maintainer who confirms continued commitment, regardless of activity level (separate from Specify the support policy for organization projects #196 security-backstop obligations, which can still require action independently).
• Voluntary path documented: a maintainer may ask the dedicated group to help run the retirement process for their own project.
• Fallback path documented: triggered only when the annual ping (linked ticket) goes fully unanswered; defines the steps from there (further outreach attempt, downgrade Organization → Affiliate, archival, public announcement).
• A dedicated group of 3 people is defined, responsible for handling both the voluntary and fallback paths.
• The process is documented (e.g. as a markdown doc in this repo, similar to resources/).
• The process is communicated to all maintainers of Typelevel Organization projects, so they know exactly what does and does not trigger it.

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I want to declare: I used AI to challenge my thinking on this proposal and to help me write it clearly in English.

[jepfp]

Comments during discussion in TSC work session (21.09.26):
Feedback from Arman:

• Lose status: A project could also just lose its status as an organizational project without being deprecated as a whole. Consequences:
  • Only deprecating it as an organizational project
  • It falls out of scope for Typelevel
  • We don't want to host it or provide security updates anymore
• Too important: A project could also be too important to let it fall. We should step in.
• Maybe archive a project?

Feedback from Victor:

• Archiving makes the project looking dead
• Overall: We should try to make it as easy as possible for maintainers.

[jepfp]

Based from Todays discussion, a first proposal. I am going to further refine it.

flowchart TD
    subgraph S1["Trigger"]
        A["Annual ping (#210)"] --> B{"Maintainer responds<br/>and confirms commitment?"}
        E["Maintainer asks TSC<br/>for help retiring"]
    end

    B -->|"yes, still committed"| C["No action — re-ping next year"]
    B -->|"no response after N reminders"| D
    E --> D

    subgraph S2["TSC / group of 3 assess"]
        D{"Too important<br/>to let fall?"}
        D -->|"yes"| F["TSC steps in:<br/>find new maintainer /<br/>interim TSC support"]
        F --> G{"New maintainer<br/>found?"}
        G -->|"yes"| C
        D -->|"no"| H{"Keep alive outside Typelevel,<br/>or end it?"}
    end

    G -->|"no"| H

    subgraph S3["Outcome"]
        H -->|"lose org status only"| I["Downgrade:<br/>Organization → Affiliate"]
        I --> K["Announce publicly,<br/>update docs/site,<br/>stop security backstop"]
        H -->|"end of life"| L["Public call for maintainers<br/>before archiving"]
        L --> M{"Anyone steps up?"}
        M -->|"yes"| G
        M -->|"no"| N["Archive repository"]
        N --> O["Clear announcement:<br/>why archived, how to revive"]
    end

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