[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Please help with pull requests! (Issue #3815)

[Emin Kocan]

kcne left a comment (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#3815)

> I've recently found myself reviewing less frequently, not because I expected progress on particularly my submissions in return, but because I didn't see my reviews contributing meaningfully to overall progress.

I've experienced similar issues when trying to review PRs or help maintainers move things forward. At the same time, I understand the challenge maintainers face — juggling multiple PRs, issues, contributors and solutions can be exhausting. That said, I do feel that both review velocity and overall responsiveness have improved noticeably since last year, which is great to see.

> A big part of that, I think, comes down to differing review criteria between contributors and maintainers. That’s fair to some extent, but it becomes frustrating when a maintainer "fast-tracks" their PR that renders an earlier, unreviewed PR obsolete, without any discussion or acknowledgment of the overlap. It feels dismissive to those who spent time contributing and reviewing.

I think a key part of the issue here is the lack of clearly documented priorities and criteria, especially for contributors - both new and experienced. Since this is an open-source project, it's standard for contributors to invest time in areas they think are important, only to find those efforts sidelined. A transparent, prioritized "roadmap" (e.g. security fixes, critical bugs, moderation tools) would help align contributor efforts with current goals. This would also allow maintainers to focus more effectively and reduce the backlog of PRs.

Opening up tags or labels to contributors has come up before as well. It could bring value by helping organize and surface priority work, though I understand it might introduce overhead if not limited to trusted contributors.

> It’s even more disheartening when follow-up questions on concerns go unanswered, especially when the one maintainer who raised them refuses to elaborate. In those cases, it feels like the PR is being silently closed off, without the transparency that a clear rejection or actionable feedback would bring.

Totally agree on this one - even minimal feedback on stale PRs can help contributors wrap them up or close them out. It avoids limbo and leads to a cleaner PR queue, which benefits everyone involved.


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