PRs welcome-itis 

A fatal condition commonly found in people who host code repositories on GitHub.

Whenever someone posts an issue, describing a bug or feature request, the only thing they receive back is the dreaded phrase: "PRs welcome". Usually accompanied by a smiley face or other smug remark. This is an unfortunate sign that the maintainer has suffered from PRs welcome-itis.

The phrase is analagous to "do it yourself". Even fatal flaws or widespread issues can be shrugged off in this manner. In the most extreme of cases all newly opened issues will be met with this response. The only thing you can do is either create a pull request, doing all the work yourself even if you are just a user, or let the issue sit forever, since the maintainer will not dedicate any effort into research or implementation.

PRs welcome-itis is almost uncurable. If you see someone developing PRs welcome-itis, you should be incredibly concerned. Try to help them before it becomes permanent, as only the early stages can be reversed.

If you ever load up an issue and see this phrase in the comments - run away, run far away! Your feedback will be ignored.

Here is an example of PRs welcome-itis:

Issue: "Program completely breaks on Windows 10 1803 even though it worked fine on 1703"
Maintainer: "PRs welcome! :)"

Issue: "Program should use the correct convention for file naming"
Maintainer: "PRs welcome! :)"

In almost all cases the issue will sit for years with no progress as the maintainer neglects it, blaming the poster for not creating a PR. This is how extreme PRs welcome-itis can get, and projects can die from it.

PRs welcome-itis by LoganDark December 17, 2020