To identify the pain points associated with handling the inactively maintained packages and enhance the support for package users, we are inviting unmaintained package user like you to participate in a brief 3-minute survey comprising 11 choice questions and 1 optional question.

Preliminary:
Deprecated packages: These are packages that have a deprecation announcement indicating that there will be no further maintenance in the future, and users are discouraged from continuing to use them or new users from adopting them. The concept is distinct from finished packages, which have completed development and may receive bug fixes in the future.
Deprecation announcement: Deprecation announcements are generally released on the homepage, issues tracker (e.g., Github issue), or within the source code as warnings.
Risks of using deprecated packages: Using deprecated packages can be risky. If these deprecated packages are reported to be buggy or vulnerable in the future, they cannot receive patches or update due to their deprecation status.
Actions on the deprecated packages: When encountering deprecated packages in a project and considering the risks of using them, some users may choose to take action. For example, they may fork a new branch to continue developing the package, while others may seek alternative solutions. 

1.Do you know that there is a deprecated package in your codebase?
 1.Yes.
 2.No.
 3.Others.

2.How often do you check for deprecated dependencies in your projects?
 1.Very often.
 2.Occasionally.
 3.Rarely.
 4.Never.
 5.Others.

3.How do you check whether one package is deprecated or not?
 1.Check the homepage for a deprecation announcement.
 2.Check the issue tracker to find any deprecation announcement in issues.
 3.Subscribe to the RSS feed of the project if available.
 4.Receive emails from the developer or package manager.
 5.Others.

4.Do you want to be notified when there are deprecated dependencies in your codebase by the package manager (i.e., PyPI) or the package owner? 
 1.Yes.
 2.No.
 3.Others.

5.How would you expect to be notified about the deprecation of a package?
 1.An announcement on the homepage.
 2.A warning displayed during package installation.
 3.A warning displayed when using the package.
 4.An Email containing the deprecation announcement.
 5.Others.

6.What content do you expect to be included in the deprecation announcement?
 1.Reasons for deprecation.
 2.Alternative solutions.
 3.A severity report.
 4.Others.

7.Is it more difficult to make the decision without an explicit deprecation announcement regarding whether to adopt, remove, or take other actions on an inactively maintained package that hasn't been updated for a long time？
 1.Yes.
 2.No.
 3.Others.

8.In what situation will you take actions on deprecated packages?
 1.There are no more new features.
 2.There are no future bug patches supported.
 3.If the deprecated package includes dependencies that are reported as vulnerable in the future and the deprecated package does not update  them to a vulnerability-free version.
 4.There are already existing vulnerabilities or bugs.
 5.There are better alternatives available.
 6.I don’t want to take any action.
 7.Others.

9.What actions will you take on the deprecated dependency?
 1.Fork and develop a new version.
 2.Seek another solution.
 3.Remove the dependency.
 4.I don’t want to take any action.
 5.Others.

10.Are there any challenges when taking action on the deprecated packages?
 1.Not sure how to take action.
 2.Lack of time and resources.
 3.Others.

11.What kind of support do you expect from developers and package managers?
 1.Migration guidelines.
 2.Guidelines for taking over the package and continuing its development.
 3.Others.

12.If you have any additional thoughts on the challenges related to unmaintained packages that you would like to share, or if you have any comments about the survey, please feel free to share them with us in this question.
 Answer.