What's the status of MA and EMAPA?

[cthoyt]

https://obofoundry.org/ontology/ma and https://obofoundry.org/ontology/emapa appear to show these ontologies have regular standing, but I have been unsuccessful at contacting @tfhayamizu either on their issue trackers or by several emails over the last few years (most recent being early May 2023). Both of these ontologies appear to be under the same tracker at https://github.com/obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology.

What is the right step forward? This ontology isn't "inactive" (i.e., there are sporadic commits over the last few years), but it also doesn't seem to match any of the possibilities in https://github.com/OBOFoundry/OBOFoundry.github.io/blob/master/docs/OntologyStatus.md. I think the most accurate way to describe what's going on for MA/EMAPA is to create an "unresponsive" flag for this situation as suggested in #2255.

[cthoyt]

Tagging other past contributors to this repo:

• @janefarmstrong @ccadete (they don't appear to be active on GitHub)
• @c15mnw (appears to be active on GitHub in the last year)

The last is Chris Mungall, but I'll save him the ping

[tfhayamizu]

@cthoyt
My apologies for the lack of responsiveness. Apparently I missed the May 2023 correspondence.
The MA has not been updated for several years but is maintained for use by other resources.
The EMAPA is actively used by GXD and MGI. Files are in GitHub and periodically released publicly.
Can you let me know specifically what action needs to be taken in order to avoid an 'unresponsive' flag.

[cthoyt]

@tfhayamizu thanks for responding. The things that would be great for you to take care of are:

• 3 pull requests need merging listed on https://github.com/obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology/pulls
  • Remove two confusing class/term definitions obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology#128
  • Map relations to RO ids to be used in OWL translation. obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology#125
  • Add root entity annotation obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology#122
• various issues could use follow-up on https://github.com/obophenotype/mouse-anatomy-ontology/issues

If you are unsure how to go about using these parts of GitHub, I am happy to meet and help you work through them.

I would also suggest promoting a second person to have rights to merge and push the project forward (both from a technical and project governance perspective) to ensure the project can live up to the OBO Foundry expectations of responsiveness even if you aren't personally able to keep up the project.

@matentzn is a very busy guy already but I think he would be a good choice to consider for "deputy" maintainer since he is very active/responsive on GitHub but also very careful about making big changes (whereas I myself could volunteer but am more likely to make big changes without asking anyone 😄)

[cmungall]

@ukemi is also very knowledgeable about github workflows and repo maintenance in GO

[cthoyt]

@tfhayamizu are you going to be able to follow up on this?

[tfhayamizu]

@cthoyt Looking this over, I realize that I may need some assistance with technical aspects of some of these issues.
I will be away next week (working sporadically) and part of the week after that, but will direct my efforts to this right after that. I appreciate your attention to this matter.

[sbello]

@tfhayamizu I can also help out with some of the GitHub basics if you need help

[nlharris]

What is the status of this?

[cthoyt]

I think the follow-up should be to mark MA and EMAPA as unresponsive since @tfhayamizu isn't generally available for discussion

[tfhayamizu]

@cthoyt Again, apologies for my lack of reponsiveness. I would like to move forward with addressing the specific issues concerning the MA, which has been static for some time. I will look into what needs to be done but likely will need assistance with technical aspects.

[sbello]

@tfhayamizu let me know if there is anything I can help with

[tfhayamizu]

@sbello Thanks, Sue. I would appreciated it.