I love the concept of a best practices checklist for archiving projects, but first read of the checklist items on this list make it seem more like they are targeting WHY the project is being archived, or WHETHER to archive it.
I expected something more along the lines of HOW - i.e, permanent url, notice that the project is no longer maintained, etc.
I think perhaps some decide not to add a helpful message to a project on GitHub when archiving it because it would update the last commit date. I think perhaps GitHub should provide a way to add a markdown note to an archived project in another repository - perhaps the same one that adds a markdown note to a GitHub profile.
They have an archive flag and project description. This should be sufficient for letting folks know.
I maintain a few orgs and this is how I handle abandoned projects. I don’t like updating the readme as 1) it affects the timeline and people may glance at the update date of the commit and have to take more time understanding and 2) I don’t want to show up in the commit history of random projects.
Because the last commit date is a key indicator of activity in a project, and someone who is archiving a project doesn't want to get a viewer's hopes up.
I expected something more along the lines of HOW - i.e, permanent url, notice that the project is no longer maintained, etc.