Analysis of the Role of GitHub Discussions as a Tool for Onboarding Newcomers in Open Source Software

The introduction of the GitHub Discussions feature on GitHub provides a new, dedicated space for collaborative communication within open-source software (OSS) projects. This paper investigates the impact of GitHub Discussions on community engagement, focusing on newcomer onboarding and the activity surrounding issues and pull requests. Through a comprehensive empirical analysis of 285 OSS projects, we observe a significant shift in participation patterns, with GitHub Discussions emerging as a more attractive entry point for newcomers compared to traditional mechanisms like issues and pull requests. Our findings suggest that while GitHub Discussions lower the barrier for newcomer participation, it leads to a decrease in traditional contributions such as new issues and pull requests. Additionally, we explore the engagement levels of different contributor roles, demonstrating how GitHub Discussions foster diverse interactions and community involvement. The results provide critical insights into the evolving nature of collaboration on GitHub and highlight the role of GitHub Discussions in shaping the dynamics of OSS project ecosystems.