⚠️ End of Life – Community Discussion

[codebude]

Hi everyone,

after more than 12 years I’ve decided to stop maintaining QRCoder.
My priorities have shifted, I have less time for side projects, and since I haven’t worked with C# professionally for over 5 years, I can no longer maintain the project properly.

This repository will be archived on November 1st, 2025. Until then, please feel free to use this issue to connect, exchange ideas, or organize a community fork.
If a well-maintained fork emerges in the future, I’ll happily support it (e.g., by linking to it in the README).

Thank you all for being part of this journey!

Raffael (@codebude )

[Tragen]

That's sad to hear but understandable. Thank you for QRCoder.
I hope somebody will do a good fork.

[gfoidl]

@codebude thanks for all your work done!
It's understandable to you can't / won't continue to maintain this repo.

I'll bring over some points that @Shane32 wrote in #592 (comment)

As an alternative to archiving the repository, I was wondering if you'd consider transferring the project to me to continue further maintenance and development

I'm supportive to not archive the repo and transfer the ownership to @Shane32. QRCoder will be in good hands by him (and I'll try to help where possible too).

While I could fork the repository and publish it under a new name, I feel that it would be in the best interest of users if I could continue supporting the project directly

👍🏻
Archiving and creating a fork brings churn to users, so best is just to continue here (and with the NuGets), but with a different maintainer.

[codebude]

Hello @gfoidl, hello @Shane32,

First of all, thank you for your ongoing commitment to QRCoder. Your dedication has been the driving force that has kept QRCoder reasonably up to date in recent times. Thank you for that.

@Shane32, I am very pleased about your offer to take over QRCoder. Both in terms of your technical expertise and the motivation you have shown so far, I have absolutely no reservations about placing the project in your hands (and I agree with @gfoidl on this).

We still need to agree on the details of the handover. Since I have never handed over a project of this size before and was unsure of the right way to do it, I spent the last few days discussing it with the r/opensource community on Reddit. (See here: https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/1nnkmua/how_to_responsibly_hand_over_maintainership_of_my/)
In summary, the feedback there was that it is best practice to archive the project and promote the most promising fork (if there is one). For this reason, I have currently acted as I have done.

I was advised against overwriting the repository and NuGet package, especially in light of past side-chain attacks on other projects.
(I was only advised to fully transfer the repositories if there was a high level of trust.)

On the one hand, I have great confidence in your abilities @Shane32, but I don't know you personally, nor do I know your full name or contact details.

Therefore, my question is whether you would agree to the following procedure:

• I archive this repo
• You fork this repo here
• I promote your fork representatively in the Readme.md
• I mark the NuGet package as “deprecated” using the official Nuget function and specify your package as the successor package there
• Optional: If you give me (temporary) write access to your fork, I would also shoud be able to transfer all issues to your fork (see: https://docs.github.com/en/issues/tracking-your-work-with-issues/administering-issues/transferring-an-issue-to-another-repository )

If you do not agree with this solution, there is option 2:

• I will transfer the entire repository to you.
• I will add you as a maintainer on NuGet, and you will then delete me from NuGet.

However, I have two requests for option 2:

• Would you please send me your contact details by email (netblognet[at]gmail.com)? (Just in case something urgent comes up, I would like to have a way to contact you outside of GitHub issues.)
• I would ask you to always leave a small note somewhere in the Readme.md (even if it's just in the footer/small print) stating that I maintained the project from 2013-2025. :-)

I look forward to hearing from you.

• Raffael (@codebude)

[gfoidl]

I understand your reasoning and motivation for option 1.
From a consumer's point of view, I still think that option 2 is more straight-forward. All references remain intact, all issues, discussions, etc. remain on the same place, no package references need to be updated, and so on.

in light of past side-chain attacks

Let me just write it very bold: at the moment we trusted you that no mailicious code is packed into the NuGet, in the future we trust @Shane32 for this. And when you're no longer the official maintainer, you're legally out of the game and can't be blamed for anything that "could" happen.

IIf option 2 is taken, and you'll feel more confident I offer to co-maintain* the project (when @Shane32 agrees on this too), so that for merging PRs each other has to approve**.

* according GH docs write-access to the repo is sufficient, so I don't need to be an owner or admin

** this is also just a weak condition, because the owner / admin of the repo could change this later on anyway and in any direction.
I don't know @Shane32 personally neither, but I feel very confident with him.

Aside: I don't aim to be maintainer, because my knowledge about QR code itself is too little. I use this project as dependency, thus I'll try to contribute to code, review, etc. with my knowledge about C# / .NET. On regards of knowledge about QR @Shane32 is the much better option as maintainer than I would be.

Besides that there's Best practices for a secure software supply chain.

---

Maybe there also option 3:

• you remain the owner, so you control the settings in GH and NuGet (see above for branch protection rules)
• the new maintainer get write access to the repo

But this is half-way baken. Based on your motivation for stopping maintaining this project (which I understand, as said) I wouldn't take this option.

[Shane32]

Thank you, @codebude , for the thoughtful approach you’re taking with this handover and for all the years you’ve invested in QRCoder. It’s been a hugely valuable resource for the community, and I’m honored by the trust you’ve shown in considering me to carry it forward.

And thank you, @gfoidl, for your support and for suggesting safeguards like two-person reviews — I’m very much in favor of collaboration and would welcome that structure. At GraphQL.NET, almost all PRs are reviewed by a separate party before merging, and I’d welcome following a similar pattern here.

I fully understand the feedback about archiving and promoting a fork. That is certainly the safest approach when the future maintainer is an unknown. However, I believe I’ve already built a layer of trust within the .NET community — through my recent contributions here and my long-term stewardship of GraphQL.NET, along with other open source projects.

For the QRCoder community, I think a direct transfer is the best path forward. It preserves issue history, discussions, and package continuity, while avoiding the churn and confusion that forks and renamed packages can create. In essence, it allows the project’s lineage to continue seamlessly.

I also want to reassure you on transparency and legacy. The MIT license will of course always carry your name, and I’ll certainly add a note in the README crediting you as maintainer from 2013–2025, as you requested. I’ll follow up with you directly by email to share my personal details and professional references.

[codebude]

Quick update to make the whole process as transparent as possible.

I was contacted by @Shane32 and received enough information to feel comfortable putting the project in his hands. (In other words, I will transfer the GitHub and NuGet repositories to Shane, which will enable a seamless transition for the community.)

I will coordinate the handover itself with Shane in the near future.

[Shane32]

Thank you, @codebude, for the incredible work you’ve put into QRCoder over the past 12+ years. Your commitment and craftsmanship made this library one of the most trusted QR code solutions in the .NET ecosystem. On behalf of the entire community, I want to acknowledge the countless hours you’ve invested in building, maintaining, and supporting this project—it’s been a remarkable contribution.

I also want to thank everyone in the community who has contributed, tested, opened issues, and relied on QRCoder. The stewardship of the project has now officially transitioned, and I’m honored to carry it forward.

Looking ahead, here are some of the areas I’ll be focusing on as new maintainer:

• Refreshing the README, credits, and build infrastructure.
• Improving CI/CD pipelines for faster, more reliable builds and releases.
• Ensuring compatibility with all current frameworks while simplifying support for older ones.
• Strengthening test coverage, including API-stability checks, to protect against regressions.
• Expanding renderer support (e.g., ImageSharp, SkiaSharp) and making platform-specific behavior clearer and less frustrating.
• Preparing a future v2 release with a trim-friendly fluent API, while keeping source compatibility with v1

I’m excited to continue QRCoder’s story together with you all, and I’m grateful for the trust placed in me. Please continue to bring your ideas, issues, and contributions—we’ll move this project forward as a community.

—Shane (@Shane32)

[gfoidl]

I'm glad that @codebude and @Shane32 found a solution with focus on the community 👍🏻

Big thanks to @codebude for all his work done!

[codebude]

Thank you very much for your kind words. All that remains for me to do now is to wish you every success. I think that with @Shane32, the project has gained a new maintainer who will benefit both the project and the community in the long term.

And maybe, if I ever get the urge to use C# again, we'll see each other again in another PR. Until then - all the best!

[Shane32]

Thanks also @gfoidl for offering to help maintain this project with me. It's always great to be able to confer with someone on a project upon which many people are depending.

I've added you as a contributor; what I normally do is request a review for anything non-trivial. Depending on the PR, I'll typically wait up to a week for an approval - but if I merge something quickly, feel free to comment on it after the fact; code can always be changed/reverted.

There's very basic branch protection rules in place, but mainly just to prevent master from being accidentally force-pushed to an earlier state, and to enforce linear history. I've also set only 'squash and merge' to be enabled for PRs.

If you ever want to bow out of this role, just let me know. Thanks again!