It seems that community contributions to Element Web (Matrix client) are often effectively rejected. For example, see:
- https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/pull/9240
- https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/pull/11078
There are also many other PRs for Element Web/Desktop which have not gotten a review in a timely manner (see here). The request to improve the terrible notification sound has been there since 2017, and though several PRs have been submitted to improve it, they have been either ignored or rejected for an unknown reason (there should be an epic project going on which should make the six-year-wait legitimate).
When it comes to development of Element, there is a lot of unspoken, unwritten, internally shared rules among the internal team members. Your PR will be effectively rejected even if it works, unless it aligns with their goals, which you cannot know before submitting a PR.
It should be well noted that there is a clear and strict division between the internal paid workers and external volunteer developers who essentially provide the team free labor. The exclusive attitude of the team behind Element has discouraged the latter from contributing to the project. I myself have been one of the active localization volunteers, but I stopped contributing after I realized it has been free labor.
If i learned anything from my early contributions, it’s checking the health of a project and attitude of its maintainers before spending anytime on that project.
Yes, I should have done that actually.
If you want to contribute to someone else’s code, you should familiarise yourself with their values or plans before writing code. Can’t expect them to accept any contribution without question.
Otherwise, fork the project and make your own version.
The point is that project pretends as if it would welcome any contribution, while there seems to be in fact a lot of rules and guidelines which are not shared with the community. I’m not saying it would be deceiving, though.
Not sure if Syphon rejects community contributions but I wish Syphon client got more love and attention. Syphon is more privacy focused and is written in Dart, allowing it to be compiled for desktop and mobile.
I have once tried Syphon but for an unknown reason it did not work for me really well.
If you guys are by any chance interested in how members of the community responded, please check out the comments added after the PR was closed: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk/pull/9240#issuecomment-1703060227 and below. You would be able to see the pent-up negativity toward the reluctant team communication. Check these two:
