I once asked about the possiblity of adding a feature to a project. I was told before I even created the PR that it wouldn't get accepted because there would be no need for such a feature. I looked at the project a few months later and it had that feature.
Sometimes the biggest problem to getting new contributors is the current contributors. A great example of that is when Laravel asked the community on reddit why they didn't contribute or what was the biggest hurdle. Everyone responded with the guy who was triaging the tickets. Literally, he would act like a Reddit moderator. One line responses such as "Short answer is , no."
