Toward a "modern" Emacs

The total number of people who have *ever* contributed to Emacs is remarkably low, for a project with as long a history as it has.

Requiring people to submit paperwork first kills casual contribution; you have to be fairly dedicated to get past even that hurdle.

I've also seen patches go months without any response at all.

Beyond that, I'm basing it on various anecdotes and observations, having followed the emacs-devel list for a while. In general, there are a number of things that discourage contribution, especially casual contribution. It's not that people aren't interested. It's that the reaction to many people who are interested radiates "go away".

It's absolutely the job of a maintainer to say "no" quite often. But given a good project and a well-meaning contributor, you don't want to just end it with a flat "no", you want to steer it towards "that approach won't work, here's why, but let's talk about how to solve the underlying problem that led you here in the first place". Leaving the last part out can turn it into "go away and don't come back".