Re: [MAINTAINERS SUMMIT] Coping with the new-developer flood

[Shuah Khan <skhan@linuxfoundation.org>]

On 8/6/26 11:28, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 06, 2026 at 05:57:54PM +0200, Greg KH wrote:
>>>> At a minimum, one could imagine a bot that notices a patch posted by
>>>> somebody who has not been seen before and responds with a "Welcome!
>>>> Here's how we do things here" email.
> 
> I can probably do this, since I run a bunch of bots on list messages already
> and this seems like a service that would benefit all subsystems.

That is great. I am hoping we can do this as a service for all subsystems
as a project wide thing.

> 
>>> I wonder if we could make the bot more sophisticated than just sending
>>> a welcome message.  If the patch is white-space damaged, or doesn't
>>> apply against upstream (or if there are indications that it was
>>> applied against an LTS branch without an explicit LTS tag or something
>>> indicating that it is a backport), one could imagine having the bot
>>> sending a newer contributor a more specific set of constructive
>>> criticisms.
> 
> Preferably, this would be purely deterministic, such as:
> 
> - carries "base-commit"
> - has a signed-off-by
> - actually applies
> - isn't against a known LTS branch
> 
> Failing all these on top of being an unknown/new developer could trigger a
> quick "here's what you did wrong, oh and welcome btw."

This looks a good start and we can improve it as we go.

thanks,
-- Shuah