Code reviews are supposed to be about improving code quality and sharing knowledge, but when PR comments start hitting the hundreds, something is very

Your PR Process Is Killing Morale and Productivity | _blackentropy

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Style Pass

2024-11-29 14:30:04

Code reviews are supposed to be about improving code quality and sharing knowledge, but when PR comments start hitting the hundreds, something is very wrong. I’ve recently come across a discussion where a new developer joined a team and faced over 300 PR comments on their first contribution. Most of it was stylistic nitpicking. This isn’t just unproductive, it’s outright toxic.

You’re Not Using Linters or Auto-Formatters If your team is still arguing over spacing, naming conventions, or line length, you’re wasting everyone’s time. Tools like Prettier, ESLint, or Black exist for a reason. Not automating this is borderline malpractice in modern development.

Your Team Has a "Style Over Substance" Obsession PR reviews are about catching bugs and improving maintainability, not enforcing arbitrary style rules that aren't documented or standardized. If your team cares more about renaming variables than functional design, your priorities are upside down.

Metrics Gone Wild It’s alarming how often management incentivizes the wrong things. If PR comments are being used as a performance metric, you’re inviting pointless comments that add zero value. Quality > quantity, always.