Re: [PATCH v1] Configure Git contribution guidelines for github.com

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 10, 2017, 01:51 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqtw3o4nl8.fsf@gitster.mtv.corp.google.com>
In-Reply-To: <20170609170357.GE21733@aiede.mtv.corp.google.com>

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

Show 18 quoted lines

> Lars Schneider wrote:
>
>> Many open source projects use github.com for their contribution process.
>> Although we mirror the Git core repository to github.com [1] we do not
>> use any other github.com service. This is unknown/unexpected to a
>> number of (potential) contributors and consequently they create Pull
>> Requests against our mirror with their contributions. These Pull
>> Requests become stall [2]. This is frustrating to them as they think we
>> ignore them and it is also unsatisfactory for us as we miss potential
>> code improvements and/or new contributors.
>
> I think this description could be more focused.  It's also not
> self-contained --- e.g. the link to stalled pull requests is likely to
> become stale over time, especially if GitHub gives us a way to disable
> pull requests for the repository some day.
>
> Could you summarize for me the motivation behind this patch?  Is it to
> make Git more approachable, to avoid frustrating contributors, etc?

I wonder if s/stall/stale/ is what Lars meant. I think it is fair to say that new contributors who are used to GitHub pull request would find workflow with the mailing list unfamiliar, and from that point of view, this is a step in a good direction. Back when I added GitHub as one of the publishing repositories, the best way to convey this message available to us was to have a short comment on the repository telling the readers not to throw a pull-request at us. If there are other mechanisms to do so more effectively, we should use it.