An open source contributor analyzes why PRs can languish for over a year in projects like Jellyfin, explaining through queuing theory how exponential backlogs form when limited reviewers face growing contributions. The article proposes concrete solutions like PR size limits, quality gating, and reviewer tier systems to address the systemic bottleneck problem plaguing many popular open source projects.
Background
Many popular open source projects face severe backlog issues where pull requests wait months or years for review due to limited maintainer bandwidth. This creates frustration for contributors and slows project development despite community interest.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Apr 15, 2026 at 08:22 AM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10