Project Activity Mode Vocabulary

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The following vocabulary is proposed for defining the "activity mode" of a project:

• Active: Developer(s) are steadily adding features or cleaning up program code. Serious bugs are expected to be promptly dealt with.
• Sporadic: Developer(s) occasionally add features or clean up program code. Serious bugs are expected to be promptly dealt with.
• Asleep: Developer(s) are not currently adding features or cleaning up program code, but they have plans for the project and intend for it to become active at some point in the future. Serious bugs are expected to be promptly dealt with.
• Maintanence mode: Developer(s) are not currently adding features or cleaning up program code, and do not intend for this to change in the future. However, serious bugs are still expected to be promptly dealt with.
• Coma: Developer(s) are not currently adding features or cleaning up program code, and even serious bugs are not expected to be promptly dealt with. However, either (a) serious bugs are expected to be dealt with, but not promptly, or (b) developer(s) intend for the project to switch into one of the previous three modes sometime in the future.
• Dead: No one is developing or maintaining the project, and no one intends to in the future.
• Sloppy: Developer(s) add features or clean up program code, but even serious bugs are not expected to be promptly dealt with.

"Dealt with" means patched, except for bugs which require substantial code rewrites, in which case "dealt with" means a public announcement, and, in the case of security-related bugs, continuous work until the bug is patched.

By default, "promptly" means 3 months, or 2 weeks for security-related bugs. Users are encouraged to "parameterize" this vocabulary by redefining this length of time.

Here's a handy table: