Asking the maintainer if you are allowed to provide a fix is an option?
Open pull requests are better than no pull requests. If the maintainers don't want them merged to their code base, other users can still merge them to their base.
Open pull requests are better than no pull requests. If the maintainers don't want them merged to their code base, other users can still merge them to their base.
You need to contact the maintainers directly and talk with them, preferably in an informal format where it is okay for things to be forgotten or thrown out.
The fact that things are written down and recorded forever with an expectation of work is what is causing all the problems.
I'd prefer if they open an issue - or use an existing one - as a forum to discuss what they'll be doing in a PR. That way we can either reject an idea prior to someone putting in the effort, or talk about implementation so the resulting PR is more likely to be accepted.
Drive by PRs are fine if they're simple, but the ones of higher impact need more consideration.
Even more than PRs, I have mixed feelings about feature requests. Many of them are legit things that would make the software better, but with limited resources they're likely to sit for years. Is it better to let them pile up or close them? Maybe a new tag - Deferred.
The good thing with FOSS is that the effort isn't _wasted_ since that code is still around in a fork, if not in upstream.
Why? You've taken the time to fix a problem you are having in code that you are using. You've made that patch available to the upstream maintainer, but if they don't accept it that doesn't stop you (or anyone else) from doing what you want to do with the code. I don't see how you're any worse off.
Sometimes. Depends on the norms of the project. Depends on the scope of the changes.
I agree that sending a PR should not be considered a guarantee of merging. Rather an issue that is discussed with a mixture of prose and code.
Note that I'm not talking about how the world should be. I'm talking about how it is. I agree that people shouldn't just write up a PR without any prior communication with the maintainer and then expect it to get merged. But people do; that's just reality.
Or at least there should be a clear way to indicate on a repo, PRs are not looked at and won't be merged. So if you make a PR you understand all you're doing is just advertising your fork.
If it's excessively difficult to find a way to communicate with a project maintainer, well, maybe there's your sign that this is not a good project to contribute to.
It is (or should be) a standard practice to file an issue on the repo and ask there before starting work.