Are there any advantages to making a GitHub pull request over simply opening an issue in Jira with an attached .patch file?? Both basically notify the committers about a suggested change and send an email to the mailing list. If only select members can perform the actual push to a branch I don't think a GitHub PR adds anything to an organized issue in Jira.
(I am sending my thoughts to the entire mailing list only because I think this should maybe be made clearer in the HowToContribute guide)
