https://octave.sourceforge.io/dev-descr-two-groups.php

This is a draft, discussion is invited.
Community packages and external packages

Packages hosted at Octave Forge are now assigned to one of two groups.
Community packages

Community packages are attempted to be coordinated between each other and with Octave. To facilitate this, their maintainers are expected to:

    cooperate, if asked, with Octave Forge in achieving and implementing decisions regarding the package. The maintainers voice will have a large weight, but decisions may sometimes even relate to name changes of functions, the inclusion of new functions into the package, or assigning of functions to a different package or to Octave.
    keep the Octave Forge clone of the package repository current.
    handle patches created against the currently developed heads at the Octave Forge repository, or pushed to the Octave Forge repository, by others. In occasional cases, a patch with only formal changes, or with a non-intrusive fix required to be compatible with new Octave versions, may be pushed by others (typically administrators) even without asking before.

External packages

Decisions on the content of external packages are solely in the authority of the package maintainer. The common requirements for packages hosted at Octave Forge still apply.
External repositories

Both community and external packages may of course have external clones of repositories where their maintainers accept contributions by others. Maintainers may publish releases outside Octave Forge, possibly under different package names. If releases at Octave Forge and outside of it have the same name and version, they should be identical.