Should issues older than a year or marked as stale be shown?

[srishtea-22]

While browsing the goodfirstissue website, I noticed that some of the issues listed were either over 2-3 years old with no progress or marked as stale by the repository's bot.

Should such issues, which were opened years ago and no progress has been made, be excluded from the listing?
Because they may not be relevant to the current codebase anymore but on the other hand some long-standing good first issues may still be valid.

[joshi-chinmay-016]

This is a great question.

I think older or stale issues shouldn’t be completely excluded by default, because some long-standing “good first issues” may still be valid and useful for new contributors.

However, showing very old or inactive issues without context can be misleading, especially if the codebase has evolved significantly.

A balanced approach could be:

• Prioritize recent and active issues by default
• Add a filter or toggle to include/exclude stale or older issues
• Indicate clearly when an issue is marked as stale or hasn’t had recent activity

This way, beginners can focus on relevant issues while still having the option to explore older ones if needed.

[jayakumar26-v]

Ask Before Coding: Leave a comment such as, "Hi team, is this issue still open and relevant for a newcomer?"Gauge the Response: If a maintainer replies positively, you are good to go. If there is no response within 1–2 weeks, it is better to move on to a fresher issue.