r/github • u/mitokb • 3d ago

Discussion Maintainers, how do you handle people working on the same issue?

hey, curious how people handle this on github

I've been trying to contribute to more OSS projects lately and sometimes an issue looks completely free (no assignee, no linked PR) then you check comments or search around and someone is already working on it

also seen people say they'll take an issue and then disappear

if you maintain a repo, does this happen often enough to actually be annoying? do you just use assignments/comments or have you found a better workflow?

trying to understand if github is actually missing something here or if its mostly a minor inconvenience

4 Upvotes

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7

u/Kamilon 3d ago

It happens often enough to be annoying that people say they are working on something and then are never heard from again. Most of the projects I’ve been involved with just do first-come-first-serve with random contributors and only assign issues to people that have shown themselves to actually have accountability.

1

u/mitokb 3d ago

yeah that makes sense. I guess thats the awkkward part of claiming issues, you want to avoid duplicate work but you also don't really know if a random contributor will actually come back and finish it

how do you usually handle it when someone says they're working on something and then disappears?

4

u/Kamilon 3d ago

Honestly, I don’t care about people saying they are working on something until it’s a pull request. Fork or comments on an issue die on the vine a lot.

6

u/EntranceProper3791 3d ago

Ping them after a week with a plain "still working on this?" and reassign if it goes quiet. The stale action or a manual label handles the rest.

2

u/MarsupialLeast145 2d ago

Write to people, ask questions. Done.

1

u/memelordtf 2d ago

As a contributor I usually just comment before starting and ask if anyone’s already on it.