How to deal with well-meaning open-source contributors?
- by Solo
If a programmer contacts you and asks to contribute to your project, how do you handle it?
You don't know if this guy is any good. Perhaps he'll be more trouble than he's worth.
He might be trying to attach his name to a successful project just for the kudos.
He might be trying to take the project in a direction you don't really want, adding features you think aren't worth the extra complexity.
Or, he might be a very useful contributor. You just don't know.
How do you handle such requests from people you don't know (On GitHub, specifically, if that makes any difference)? What's the etiquette here?