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

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.

> > 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."

-K