Should you accept a pull request from a very bad person? (Part I)

Here's a thought experiment

November 19, 2018

Jonathan Libov

You are the leader of an open-source project. Your Uncle Mort is turning 70. You are set to fly to Minneapolis this weekend to visit him, when you remember that a longtime contributor to your project, who you only know from sporadic Github comments and IRC chats, lives there. You arrange to meet this contributor for coffee while in town.

Over coffee you learn that this person not only holds morally reprehensible views, but has likely performed immoral acts. You leave the cafe with no doubt that this is a very, very bad person.

Two weeks later, they make another pull request that would be valuable to your project. Is it ethical to accept this request, and others moving forward?

I try to tease this apart (but not “unpack it” because that phrase is obnoxious) in Part II.