TL;DR: If you send a pull request to an npm or PyPI project, you're more likely to hear nothing back than with a Rust, Go or Java one. About 3 in 10 active npm and PyPI projects leave most outside PRs unanswered for two weeks, against about 1 in 5 for crates.io.
In Porchlamp's October 2026 snapshot, 33.8% of active PyPI projects and 30.0% of active npm projects left most outside pull requests unanswered for two weeks, compared with 20.0% of crates.io projects.
Does the ecosystem matter?
To find out, I split my data on outside pull requests by package ecosystem.
A quick definition first. I call a project a black hole when most pull requests from outside contributors get no human reply, review or merge within two weeks. Only active, licensed projects with at least ten outside PRs are judged.
Which ecosystems answer outside pull requests?
| Ecosystem | Projects judged | Black holes |
|---|---|---|
| PyPI | 968 | 33.8% |
| npm | 1,283 | 30.0% |
| Go | 609 | 22.2% |
| Systems (C, C++ and others) | 573 | 20.1% |
| crates.io | 586 | 20.0% |
| Maven | 278 | 19.4% |
Two groups stand out:
- npm and PyPI: roughly 3 in 10 projects go quiet on outsiders.
- Rust, Go, Java and systems projects: closer to 1 in 5.
Rust isn't alone at the good end. Maven is a touch better, and systems projects are level with it.
What I wouldn't read into it
- It's not about community character. These are averages over very different projects.
- Size isn't controlled for. Bigger projects go silent more often in general, so an ecosystem with more big projects looks worse for that reason alone.
- Off-GitHub review isn't counted. Projects that review on Gerrit or a mailing list aren't judged, and they may cluster in some ecosystems.
So if you're picking where to send your first PR, this is a mild nudge, not a guarantee about any single project.
Check the project, not just the ecosystem
The full ranking is on Porchlamp. Here is the Porchlamp ranking of crates.io projects; switch the filter to see any other ecosystem. Every black-hole verdict lists the pull requests behind it. If a project looks misjudged, open an issue with the evidence.
Would you expect the Rust number to hold up once project size is taken into account?
Top comments (1)
That's an interesting observation about crates.io. As someone who's worked with various open-source projects, I've noticed that the responsiveness to outside contributions can vary greatly depending on the community and project maintainers. What do you think are the key factors that contribute to crates.io having a relatively higher response rate to outside pull requests compared to other package managers like npm or PyPI? Is it due to the nature of the Ru…