State of (old) npm packages

[Edin Mujagić]

Hi, I was just wondering if there is any kind of solution to potential problem of massive amount of packages on npm that are:

 - old packages that use old apis

 - packages that are init commit

 - packages that are broken by new npm versions

I understand node ecosystem is all about minimal packages that solve very specific problem domains and are glued together by user in their applications. 

But there are growing number of packages that are basically abandoned. And when you take a look at commits you see something like 2 years ago ... 4 years ago, and also there are more then few issues and some of pull requests that aren't commented and authors show no sign of life of project.

My question is:

 - Does anybody governing node, npm and similiar stuff is aware of these issues, and is there potential solution to them?

 - Are we limited to forking and producing new modules with same / similar name - which I believe would be more confusing?

I am asking this because on a daily basis I am encountering packages that have latest commit years ago, and maybe some pull requests and few issues but are well done packages and are unusable just because of new version of node, expres, etc...

[Aria Stewart]

I think there's actually several separate things lumped together here.

- Old packages that use old APIs

Most of the old APIs still work; even require('sys') still works. Some of it's crufty, and I'm sure some is broken, but much of it actually does still work.

- Packages that are init commit

These are against npm policy; reserving space isn't allowed. Filing a ticket with npm if you want the name is totally legit.

- packages that are broken by new npm versions

Sadly has happened some, or were broken anyway but when new versions of its dependents came out, broke.

Many of these could be made to work if you manually downgrade some of their dependencies, but the rot is definitely setting in.

- Abandoned packages

Some I think could just be left as is. they work. Perhaps not without issue -- though I see a lot of feature requests that get ignored by developers, so open issues alone aren't always a sign of problems.

Would removing them help the ecosystem? Probably not -- it'd just make other versions of other packages stop working.

Marking them would be interesting, but there's of course all the ills that come with social platforms left open for abuse. It'd need some moderation.

Forking and making new modules is a great way. We need better ways to find modules, and to see which are built as alternatives and forks. Send ideas for the npm website and client to npm! (or better yet: send PRs!) Things that would make it more useful to you to you are likely to be taken seriously. Developer ergonomics matter.

Aria

[Adam Reynolds]

It's getting to the point where you need a curated list of packages.

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