Beyond controlling PRs: how can we support better contributions outside of code?

[moraesc]

While we explore ways of controlling and filtering pull requests, both as communities and in the GitHub product itself, I'd like to also get your thoughts on contributions beyond the code / PRs, and what GitHub might do to better support and recognize those.

So tell me: what contributions do you value in your projects that you want to see more of, and what could GitHub do to help you create that environment and build that long-term sustainability for maintainership?

Comment below 👇

[helen]

Setting aside / disclaimer that @moraesc and I work together on Maintainer Love at GH, here's a thought from me as one of the lead developers/maintainers of WordPress :) I really appreciate that as a very large project with a very large if not majority audience of non-developer users, we invest in a wide variety of non-code ways to contribute, from translations to design to marketing to education to events and more. We recognize these contributions in a variety of ways, but what's most relevant to our GitHub (and Trac) usage are the contributions toward a specific release. We as maintainers for the project manually write out lists of "props" in a commit message, where we include anybody who has meaningfully moved the change forward: issue reporters, testers, writers, designers, etc. So my most immediate wishlist item would be enhancing the system that's already there and making it easier to give co-author attribution in commit messages, perhaps in particular when merging a PR. And then from there, clear ways for projects to point contributors to the types of contributions we want to see besides PRs and incentives to go with!

[uniasvicente716-blip]

Uniasvicente716@gmail.com

[Mohd-Talha-Ashraf]

A common myth about open source sustainability is that it can be achieved only by contributing code. On the contrary, many important contributions take place beyond pull requests.

The contributions I value most are:

• Improvements to documentation that make projects more comprehensible and easily onboardable.
• Issue triage and bug reproduction efforts saving maintainers tons of time.
• Community assistance via discussion participation, helping beginners, and creating a friendly atmosphere.
• Code review and testing in different environments.
• Educational material like tutorials, blogs, demo applications, and examples.
• General maintenance duties, such as upgrading dependencies, fixing continuous integration, and managing releases.

I would really appreciate GitHub taking steps toward improving recognition of these kinds of non-code contributions. The current contribution graphs and profile system emphasize commits and merged pull requests, whereas many important contributors go unnoticed.

Some ideas GitHub could explore:

• Badges and contribution types for documentation, reviews, mentoring, and issue triage.
• Better tools for maintainers in terms of load balancing and contributor assistance.
• Community metrics related to response time, contributor retention, and maintainers' work-life balance.
• Better mentoring programs and "first contribution" processes.
• Support for sustainable open source funding and maintainership.

Healthy open-source communities are built not only by people who write code, but also by people who support, guide, review, document, teach, and maintain the ecosystem around it.

[uniasvicente716-blip]

Uniasvicente716 @Nyxveil-D

[Nyxveil-D]

One thing I've learned after a few years on GitHub is that code is only part of the story.

The people answering questions, improving docs, reviewing PRs, reporting bugs, and helping newcomers often have just as much impact as the people writing code.

I'd love to see GitHub recognize those contributions more visibly. A great bug report, an excellent code review, or helping users in discussions can save maintainers hours of work and keep projects healthy.

Open source survives because of communities, not just commits. Anything GitHub can do to highlight and reward those contributions would be a huge win for maintainers and contributors alike.

[uniasvicente716-blip]

Uniasvicente716@gmail.com

[SAYANA-code]

One thing open source has taught me is that great projects are sustained by communities, not just code.

Some of the most valuable contributions I see are:

• Bug reproduction and issue triage
• Documentation and onboarding improvements
• PR reviews and testing
• Helping users in Discussions
• Tutorials, examples, and educational content
• Mentoring new contributors
• Release and CI maintenance

These contributions reduce maintainer load, improve contributor retention, and make projects healthier long-term.

I’d love to see GitHub recognize these efforts more directly instead of focusing mostly on commits and merged PRs. Things like:

• Contribution categories/badges for docs, reviews, mentoring, testing, and community support
• Better tools for issue triage and reviewer load balancing
• Visibility into community health metrics, not just repository activity
• Clearer non-code contribution pathways for newcomers

The best open source communities are built by people who support the ecosystem around the code, not only the code itself.

[uniasvicente716-blip]

Uniasvicente716@gmail.com