Inside Rust: Announce sunsetting of the rustwasm GitHub Org

This is an announcement on the Inside Rust blog about the upcoming
sunsetting of the rustwasm GitHub organization along with various
handling of the repositories within, e.g. `wasm-bindgen`.

Author: alexcrichton

content/inside-rust/sunsetting-the-rustwasm-github-org.md

@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
++++
+path = "2025/07/17/sunsetting-the-rustwasm-github-org"
+title = "Sunsetting the rustwasm GitHub org"
+authors = ["Alex Crichton"]
+aliases = []
++++
+
+In 2024 the Rust and WebAssembly Working Group was [officially
+archived][archive] in the Rust project after ~5 years of inactivity with an
+intent to shut down the [rustwasm] GitHub Organization soon after. Although a
+bit later than intended the purpose of this post is to give a concrete timeline
+for this process in which the [rustwasm] GitHub Organization will become fully
+archived.
+
+The [`wasm-bindgen`] repository is going to be transferred to a new
+[wasm-bindgen organization][wbgorg] with new additional maintainers. All
+other repositories in the [rustwasm] organization are going to be archived in
+place or transferred to their existing maintainers if they elect to do so.
+Transferring [`wasm-bindgen`] will occur in the weeks following this post and
+archiving the organization is going to happen September 2025.
+
+The [rustwasm] organization has historically been under the purview of the Rust
+and WebAssembly Working Group, and given the historical prominence of some
+projects it contained this post is serving as an announcement of upcoming plans
+for repositories in the organization.
+
+[archive]: https://github.com/rust-lang/team/pull/1489
+[wbgorg]: https://github.com/wasm-bindgen
+
+## History of the Rust and WebAssembly Working Group
+
+The Rust and WebAssembly Working Group was [created in 2018][create] as part of
+the initiative for the 2018 edition at the time. Through 2019 the
+working group was quite active and helped Rust's support for WebAssembly
+flourish. Tools such as [`wasm-bindgen`] and [`wasm-pack`] were created as part
+of this effort and continue to be used to this day. After 2019 though the
+organization saw a drastic reduction in activity and most projects have been in
+maintenance mode for nearly 5 years at this point.
+
+While the working group has been officially archived for over a year now the
+repositories in the [rustwasm] organization continued on and continued to see
+some use and minor maintenance. This has perpetuated a confusing situation for
+users and maintainers alike where it's not clear what the maintenance story for
+many of these repositories are and how to move forward with the repositories
+that are actively in use.
+
+## Sunsetting the `rustwasm` Organization
+
+In September of 2025 the [rustwasm] GitHub organization will be archived to
+cease all activity within the organization. This will help clarify that
+[rustwasm] is no longer a central hub for all things Rust-and-WebAssembly but
+instead is a historical archive of efforts.
+
+The [rustwasm] organization has a number of repositories within it, most of
+which haven't seen any activity in quite some time. The current plan at this
+time is to arrange for [`wasm-bindgen`] to be transferred to a new
+[project-specific organization][wbgorg] and additionally add new fresh
+maintainers to assist with project direction going forward. All other
+repositories in the [rustwasm] organization will be archived or transferred to
+their existing maintainers if needed.
+
+### Transferring `wasm-bindgen`
+
+The [`wasm-bindgen`] project is relied on in a number of contexts today and
+existing users have expressed interest in both maintaining and growing the
+repository over time. The [rustwasm] organization is no longer a great home for
+this work so the plan is to transfer it out to a new home in a neutral location
+not owned by any one person or company. This transfer will be coupled with
+inviting new maintainers to the repository for improved project maintenance in
+addition to evolving the project.
+
+While a critical mass of new maintainers has already been reached, if you are
+interested in helping out with maintenance [an issue has been
+created][wasm-bindgen-help] to coordinate efforts around maintenance with
+[`wasm-bindgen`]. Feel free to leave a comment there to help out with this
+transition.
+
+### Archiving other repositories
+
+The current plan at this time is to archive all other repositories in the
+[rustwasm] organization. This includes repositories such as:
+
+* https://github.com/rustwasm/wasm-pack
+* https://github.com/rustwasm/gloo
+* https://github.com/rustwasm/twiggy
+* https://github.com/rustwasm/walrus
+* https://github.com/rustwasm/weedle
+* (see https://github.com/orgs/rustwasm/repositories for the full list)
+
+If you are an preexisting maintainer of one of these repositories please reach
+out to have the repository transferred to you. Otherwise it's not clear at this
+time whether these repositories are still actively in use or how much they're
+relied on. The historically trusted nature of the [rustwasm] organization means
+it's not quite as simple as transferring these repositories to the first
+volunteer. Instead transferring repositories will require vetting new
+maintainers for trustworthiness and reliability and unfortunately the current
+admin of the [rustwasm] organization is not prepared to do this.
+
+If your use case critically relies on these repositories it is
+recommended to fork the repository. Where required it's possible to leave a
+message in the old README pointing to the fork. If a fork is not viable then
+understanding is appreciated in that the [rustwasm] organization has been
+inactive for over 5 years now and there are no known active maintainers to
+reach out to. Charting a path for each repository requires a significant amount
+of effort to understand current users and plan for future users and no one is
+available to perform this work. The goal of this effort is to do the best with
+maintainers/admins that still remain and while not a perfect answer it's
+predicted the best answer in many cases here is archiving the repository.
+
+As an absolute last resort you can reach out to [@alexcrichton] on Zulip to
+discuss alternatives.
+
+## Timeline for transfers/archives
+
+The [`wasm-bindgen`] repository will be transferred to a new [wasm-bindgen
+organization][wbgorg] in the weeks after this post. Some minor details still
+need to be sorted out maintainer-wise and that's all that's left to do.
+Afterwards a final grace period will be allowed until September at which point
+the [rustwasm] organization will become fully archived. Issues will be filed in
+various repositories giving a heads up to any interested folks indicating as
+such.
+
+[rustwasm]: https://github.com/rustwasm
+[create]: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2018/12/06/Rust-1.31-and-rust-2018/
+[`wasm-bindgen`]: https://github.com/rustwasm/wasm-bindgen
+[`wasm-pack`]: https://github.com/rustwasm/wasm-pack
+[@alexcrichton]: https://github.com/alexcrichton
+[wasm-bindgen-help]: TODO
+