5 exercises — decode the language of pull requests, issue trackers, and open-source communities: labels, acronyms, and conventions every contributor needs to know.
GitHub comment expressions covered in this set
WONTFIX — this issue is intentionally closed without being fixed
PTAL — "Please Take A Look" — requesting someone to review
good first issue — welcoming label for new contributors
WIP: — Work In Progress — PR not ready to merge
TIL — "Today I Learned" — sharing a new discovery
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
You open a GitHub issue and see it has the label "WONTFIX". The maintainer wrote: "This is by design — WONTFIX." What does this mean?
WONTFIX is a classic GitHub / Jira issue resolution that means the maintainer or team has reviewed the issue and intentionally decided not to fix it. Reasons vary: the reported behavior is by design, fixing it would break something else, it's out of scope, or it's not worth the effort. It's a firm, final decision — not a "maybe later." Famously used by the Linux kernel team and many open-source projects. Related labels: INVALID (the bug report is wrong or not reproducible), DUPLICATE (this issue was already reported), CANTFIX (technically impossible without major changes), NOFIX (same intent as WONTFIX). Understanding these labels saves time when triaging issues.
2 / 5
A reviewer comments on your pull request: "PTAL — I left a few suggestions in the latest commit." What is the reviewer asking you to do?
PTAL = Please Take A Look. It's a polite request asking someone to review something. On GitHub, it's often used when: (1) a reviewer has made new commits or left comments and wants the author to respond; (2) an author wants to request a specific person's review. Example: "PTAL when you get a chance — curious about your thoughts on the architecture." Similar: CC @username (bringing someone into the conversation), FYI (no action needed, just informing), IIRC (If I Recall Correctly — used when citing something from memory). These acronyms are informal and specific to async code review culture — never use them in client-facing communication.
3 / 5
You're new to an open-source project. The issue tracker has labels, and one says "good first issue". What does this label communicate?
good first issue is a label maintainers add to issues that are welcoming for new contributors. These issues are typically: well-defined (the expected behavior is clear), small in scope (won't require deep knowledge of the entire codebase), and well-documented (have enough context to get started without asking many questions). The GitHub Explore page surfaces "good first issues" across public repos. Related: help wanted (the maintainer is actively looking for someone to work on this but doesn't restrict it to beginners), hacktoberfest (issues open for Hacktoberfest contributions), up for grabs (same idea — unclaimed, welcoming).
4 / 5
A developer opens a PR with the title: "WIP: Refactor authentication logic (do not merge)" What does WIP indicate, and what should reviewers do?
WIP = Work In Progress. A WIP PR is opened early — often to share progress, get early feedback, or use CI/CD to run tests — but is not ready to be merged. The "do not merge" note reinforces this. GitHub now has Draft Pull Requests as an official feature, which formally marks a PR as not-ready and disables the merge button. But the WIP prefix in the title is an older, simpler convention. When you see WIP: (1) feel free to leave early feedback, (2) don't approve or merge. Related: RFC (Request for Comments — a PR or document opened for discussion, not direct implementation), POC (Proof of Concept).
5 / 5
A developer posts in the team chat: "TIL that PostgreSQL has built-in full-text search — no need for Elasticsearch for simple cases 🤯" What does TIL mean, and what is the developer doing?
TIL = Today I Learned. It's used to share a new piece of knowledge — a discovery, technique, or fact the person just learned. The format is extremely popular on GitHub (the jbranchaud/til repo has 14k+ stars), Reddit (r/todayilearned), and Hacker News. In team culture, TIL posts are valuable: they spread useful knowledge, encourage curiosity, and normalize learning. The 🤯 emoji ("mind blown") reinforces the surprise. Related expressions: +1 or 👍 (I agree / upvote — comes from GitHub's old reaction system), ship it 🚢 (let's deploy it — approval with enthusiasm), nit (nitpick — a minor non-blocking suggestion).