That analogy might work with the original formulation of this idea: if someone opens a "big" pull request on a project you weary of, hand it over. That PR, even

That analogy might work with the original formulation of this idea: if someone opens a "big" pull request on a project you weary of, hand it over. That PR, even without substantial review, can show effort and familiarity, and you could argue there's a really good chance they'll try to be good stewards. But in this case, it's not "a member of that community who also has potato farming skills", it's an absolute nobody, who you haven't seen doing any farming, or eating, before. It's a big world, there are crazies out there, they show up every once in a while. And finally, it's the internet, it's not really like anything that came before. You can be more trusting in a small town than in a big city. The internet is 1000 times bigger than the biggest city, it's a whole new kind of thing. If 99.9% of people out there have good intentions, that still leaves millions of people on the internet trying figure out a way to take advantage of you.