The vast majority of PRs are bad. They could even be described as “selfish” in the sense that the “contributor” is haphazardly making whatever change minimally fixes their exact use case without consideration for the project’s style, health, usability, or other users. This isn’t outright malicious or even deliberately inconsiderate, but it still has a negative effect.
Refusing such a PR (which, again, is most of them) is easy. But it is also time consuming if you don’t want to be rude. Everything you point out as inadequate is a chance for them to rebut or “fix” in a way which is again unsatisfactory, which only leads to more frustration and wasted time. The solution is to be specific about the project’s goals but vague about the code. Explain why you feel the change doesn‘t align with what you want for the project, but don’t critique specific lines.
There are, of course, exceptions. Even when I refuse a PR, if it’s clear it was from a novice with good intentions and making an effort to learn, I’ll still explain the issues at length so they can improve. If it’s someone who obviously used an LLM, didn’t understand anything about what they did and called it a day, I’ll still be polite in my rejection but I’ll also block them.
Ginger Bill (creator of Odin) talked about PRs on a podcast a while back and I found myself agreeing in full.
Refusing such a PR (which, again, is most of them) is easy. But it is also time consuming if you don’t want to be rude. Everything you point out as inadequate is a chance for them to rebut or “fix” in a way which is again unsatisfactory, which only leads to more frustration and wasted time. The solution is to be specific about the project’s goals but vague about the code. Explain why you feel the change doesn‘t align with what you want for the project, but don’t critique specific lines.
There are, of course, exceptions. Even when I refuse a PR, if it’s clear it was from a novice with good intentions and making an effort to learn, I’ll still explain the issues at length so they can improve. If it’s someone who obviously used an LLM, didn’t understand anything about what they did and called it a day, I’ll still be polite in my rejection but I’ll also block them.
Ginger Bill (creator of Odin) talked about PRs on a podcast a while back and I found myself agreeing in full.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mbrLxAT_QI&t=3359s