Comment by 0x6c6f6c
3 years ago
The project maintainer may not want to keep PRs open that are not acceptable as is.
There is zero functional difference between holding the PR open indefinitely (and many times follow-up just never happens) and closing the PR until changes are made and where a new PR is then opened.
> There is zero functional difference
This isn't true though. There's may be no functional difference for the receiver/merger/maintainer but there's a large difference for the submitter - this kind of approach can often be the demotivational difference between finishing and abandoning branch work.
Sure, 95% of such PRs might never go anywhere, but with the contribution pool being that small, is there a strong reason to shrink it further?
I get that maintainers have a lot on their shoulders & expecting them to be perfect receivers of outside contrib is expecting a lot, but it's also why there's so much on their shoulders.