This is the traditional method in most open-source communities... particularly where there are canonical distribution sources such as the rubyforge gems.
Even if no one steps forward, would that be so bad? Capistrano works perfectly well for the vast majority of folks. It's not like I'm leaving behind a legacy of mostly-broken software. :)
if i want to update my installed version of net::ssh, can i go to the project's homepage and download a new version or do i have to look through a dozen forks on github to find out which one looks to be the most maintained and hasn't broken anything?
Setting up the website, writing docs, writing the mailing list, taking improvements -- you might not have made an explicit promise to be immortal and support capistrano and all western civilization in perpetuity, but your actions led people to believe they could rely on you.
From the blog post:
> For Capistrano, I will continue to follow the mailing list, and might appear in the #capistrano irc channel from time to time, but I am no longer the maintainer of these projects.
He kind of came out and said it.
Sorry to jump on the beatdown bandwagon, but there really is no defense for your attitude here.
Open source software gets abandoned all the time. This is only being discussed here because Jamis took the gentleman's approach and informed everyone that he was stepping down.
People say there isn't an entitlement mentality amongst people these days, but this kind of reaction is pretty compelling evidence that there is.
It's one thing if people fall back on things they've explicitly promised; it's another if someone just honestly says, "I don't have the time and energy for this anymore."
I've never made any promises about the project. I never claimed that I would be around for ever. I never said I would ignore questions, either -- just that I would ignore emails sent directly to me. But I'm going to remain on the mailing list, and will remain about as responsive there as I have (and I'm, by far, the most frequest poster there).