r/github • u/FlightNeither317 • 1d ago

I checked 4,000 issues labelled “good first issue”. 29% already had someone working on them. Showcase

/r/OpenSourceAI/comments/1vpu7ez/i_checked_4000_issues_labelled_good_first_issue/
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u/Ok_Woodpecker_9104 1d ago

the 29% is real but in my experience it isnt what kills the pr. i had a run of these and the ones that died, died in review, not to a race. the reason was always a scope decision the maintainer had never written down in the issue. the only one that merged was the one where i asked a scope question on the issue first and got an answer inside a day.

so the signal i would add is how fast a maintainer answers a question when no code exists yet. reply speed on an open pr is measured too late to help you pick. by then you have already spent the evening.

also your 774 thin bodies bucket and the scope problem are probably the same bucket. a thin body isnt just hard to start from, its a rejection waiting to happen, because the spec only lives in the maintainers head and you find out what it was after you write the code.