Add an initial policy for delisting unmaintained projects

docs/user/index.rst

@@ -250,7 +250,8 @@ of Read the Docs and the larger software documentation ecosystem.
 * **Policies & Process**:
   :doc:`security` |
   :doc:`DMCA takedown policy <dmca/index>` |
-  :doc:`Policy for abandoned projects <abandoned-projects>` |
+  :doc:`/abandoned-projects` |
+  :doc:`/unofficial-projects` |
   :doc:`Release notes & changelog <changelog>`
 
 

docs/user/unofficial-projects.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+Policy for Unofficial and Outdated Projects
+===========================================
+
+This policy describes a process where we take actions against unmaintained_ and unofficial_ forks of project documentation.
+
+
+Rationale
+---------
+
+Documentation projects may be kept online indefinitely, even though a newer version of the same project exists elsewhere.
+There are many reasons this can happen,
+including forks, old official docs that are unmaintained, and many other situations.
+
+The problem with old, outdated docs is that users will find them in search results,
+and get confused to the validity of them.
+Projects will then get support requests from people who are using an old and incorrect documentation version.
+
+We have this policy to allow project maintainers to request the *delisting* of forks that are old and outdated.
+
+
+Examples
+~~~~~~~~
+
+Common cases covered by this policy are:
+
+Outdated docs
+    Documentation that is not being actively maintained or updated. This means for instance that the source project has updates that are not reflected in the documentation or a newer official documentation exists elsewhere on the internet.
+
+Unofficial forks
+    Forks of a project documentation that are not linked to from the project in any way.
+
+
+Specification
+-------------
+
+
+Unofficial projects
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A project is considered *unofficial* when it is not linked to or mentioned in *any* of the following places:
+
+* Websites and domains associated with the project
+* Social media accounts associated with the project
+* The project's primary repository -- README files, repository description, or source code
+
+
+Unmaintained projects
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A project is considered *unmaintained* when ANY of the following are met:
+
+* The configured VCS repository is unreadable. This can happen if the repository is deleted, credentials are broken or the git host permanently unresponsive.
+* The project is only serving content from releases and commits >6 months older than its source project (this happens with unmaintained forks).
+* All builds have failed for >6 months.
+
+
+Reachability
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In every case where contacting the user is necessary, the core team will reach out using one of the following means of contact:
+
+* E-mail address on file in the user's profile
+* E-mail address on the GitHub user account where the project is pointed
+
+The core team will stop trying to reach the user after 3 weeks and the user will be considered *unreachable*.
+
+
+Implementation
+--------------
+
+
+Delisting of an abandoned project
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Projects that are determined to be unmaintained_ and unofficial_ will have a ``robots.txt`` file added that removes them from all search results:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+  # robots.txt
+  User-agent: *
+  Disallow: / # Delists everything
+
+
+Projects will be delisted when ALL of the following:
+
+* The project has been determined unmaintained_ and unofficial_ by the rules described above.
+* The person who submits the report of the unmaintained_ and unofficial_ project also demonstrates failed attempts to contact the existing owner.
+* The project owner is unreachable_ by the Read the Docs team.
+* The core team does not have any additional reservations.
+
+
+Requesting a project be delisted
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If you are the maintainer of a project,
+you can request that we delist an outdated, unmaintained set of docs with our :doc:`/support`.
+
+Please include the following information:
+
+.. code-block:: text
+
+  URL of unofficial and unmaintained documentation project: ...
+  URL of official documentation (if any): ...
+  URL of official source project website (if any): ...
+  URL of official source project repository (if any): ...
+
+  Describe attempts of reaching the owner of the documentation project:
+  ...
+
+
+Thinking behind the policy
+--------------------------
+
+The main idea behind this policy is that Read the Docs serves the community.
+Every user is invited to upload content under the Terms of Use,
+understanding that it is at the sole risk of the user.
+
+While Read the Docs is not a backup service, the core team of Read the Docs does their best to keep content accessible indefinitely in its published form. However, in certain edge cases,
+the greater community's needs might outweigh the individual's expectation of continued publishing.
+
+
+Prior art
+---------
+
+This policy is inspired by our :doc:`abandoned-projects`.
+The Python Package Index (PyPI) policy for claiming abandoned packages
+(`PEP-0541 <https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0541>`_) heavily influenced this policy.
+
+.. _unmaintained: #unmaintained-projects
+.. _unofficial: #unofficial-projects
+.. _unreachable: #reachability