Pomelo.EntityFrameworkCore.MySql is one of the major EF Core providers for MySQL and MariaDB. A new GitHub issue was opened today asking the project to clarify governance, NuGet ownership, historical authorship, deprecated packages, legacy Pomelo packages, organization authority, and the EF Core 10 release process.
I think this deserves attention from the .NET community because this is not just another “when is EF Core 10 support coming?” question. The issue raises a broader concern about whether the public project structure clearly reflects who is actually maintaining and operating the package today.
The issue explicitly says it is not intended to blame the current maintainer for the 10.0 delay. The concern is almost the opposite: if the project currently depends heavily on one active volunteer maintainer, the organization and package ownership model should make that reality clear and support that maintainer.
Some of the questions raised seem reasonable for a package with this level of adoption:
- Who actively maintains the provider today?
- Which packages are active, legacy, deprecated, or unrelated to the current provider ecosystem?
- Who has authority to publish releases?
- Who can manage NuGet ownership, deprecate packages, or unlist obsolete packages?
- Does the current maintainer have the GitHub organization authority needed to manage the project going forward?
- How should users distinguish historical authorship from current operational responsibility?
- Are there any governance, ownership, or historical account issues slowing down 10.0 release management or package cleanup?
The issue also points to several older unresolved issues, including a 2020 issue about consolidating Pomelo NuGet packages under the PomeloFoundation organization account and another 2020 issue about deprecating older NuGet packages. Both seem directly related to package ownership and cleanup.
I am not trying to pressure the current maintainer. Volunteer maintainers should not be treated like paid vendors with guaranteed release SLAs. But for a widely used provider, unclear public ownership and governance can make user frustration worse, because users may not know whether delays are caused by technical work, maintainer availability, release authority, NuGet ownership, or legacy package cleanup.
Curious what r/dotnet thinks. Is this normal for a large volunteer maintained NuGet package, or should Pomelo publish clearer maintainer, package ownership, and release governance information before or during the 10.0 cycle?