When you maintain an open source project, adding a “help wanted” or “good first issue” label sends a signal to your community that an issue is ready for the taking. 

But what if several enthusiastic contributors comment that they’d like to work on it? How do you send a clear signal to the rest of your community that you’d like particular contributor to take it on without alienating others or following up with multiple comments yourself?

Now you can assign any read-only contributor to issues they’ve commented on. They’ll get a notification that they are assigned, and if they aren’t able to take on the task, they can simply click the “Unassign me” button next to their username. 

We hope this new feature takes the friction out of assigning willing contributors to your issues fast—and helps you create a more welcoming open source community. We can’t wait to see what you build together.

Learn more about assigning issues on GitHub

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