Reduce “Can I take this?” by front-loading /take rule

## Summary
New contributors frequently comment “Can I take this?” on issues without the *help wanted* label. This creates notification noise and does not trigger CI assignment. The current contributing docs lead with “apply the ‘help wanted’ label to find issues… then comment `/take`”, which is easy to mislead as “`/take` is only for ‘help wanted’ issues”.

<img width="825" height="334" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/2632b31e-51a1-45ee-997d-b9edb1646c9e" />

## evidence
- **Maintainers have posted warnings like “comments such as ‘can I work on this’ or ‘assign this to me’ may get you banned” on issues already being worked on.**

<img width="818" height="113" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/96f4018f-1baa-498f-bc17-c9ce320de00d" />


- **Recent examples of “Can I take this?” / “assign this to me” appear across issues.** (*The following images are only used to demonstrate the existence of this situation and have no other meaning.*)

<img width="416" height="71" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3ca75454-669d-4845-b352-ff40ab5a80e6" />

<img width="787" height="90" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/13abf620-edbe-4bea-b9c6-3bb143685a91" />

<img width="769" height="75" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9dee7c8c-ce6d-4cbc-8c92-a9a2f6f0e529" />

<img width="573" height="76" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/88da0126-568f-46db-b650-9b98c00b61e3" />


- **This noise hides actionable updates and shifts cognitive load to maintainers.**

## cause
- The contribution guidelines are lengthy and detailed, which may make it difficult for beginners to quickly grasp the key points. If the opening example emphasizes a certain label, it can easily be misunderstood as "this is the only situation that can be done".In Contributing Doc,it emphasizes “help wanted” as the easy way to find issues and then says to comment `/take`. For some new contributer and skimmers, the mental model becomes:
***help wanted → allowed to /take; everything else → ask first***.

- Many newcomers, out of politeness or lack of confidence, will first ask, "Can I do this?" to avoid doing something pointless or infringing on others' territory. This reflects their uncertainty about community norms.

- The doc later explains time windows, stale/claimed PRs, etc., but many newcomers never read that.

- Placing “filter by *help wanted* … then comment `/take`” early in the doc can plausibly mislead newcomers due to well-documented effects: [**Serial-position effect**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial-position_effect?) makes early information disproportionately influential, so readers treat it as the operative rule;and the [**Web User Behaviour Directed by Information Scent**](https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/web-user-behaviour-directed-by-information-scent?) and the [**Default Effect**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_effect?) shows people often follow an implied “recommended” option when uncertain. Taken together, these explain why newcomers may ask “Can I take this?” on non-labelled issues.



## Proposal
1. **Front-load the universal rule right in the note box:**
- “`/take` works for any unclaimed issue; the ‘help wanted’ label is only a discovery aid.”
2. **Add a one-sentence callout to discourage noise:**
- “Please avoid comments like ‘Can I take this?’—use '`/take` instead. If you need design feedback, briefly outline your plan and then `/take`.”
3. **Link “how to check if an issue is already taken / time windows” from that same box.**

## Why do this?
- This does not change policy; it clarifies and surfaces the existing policy.
- No restructuring of the entire page—just a small copy edit and one cross-link.
- Reduce the noise.

COMMENT:
Thank you for creating this issue thread, @freesoulinempty, and for helping make scikit-learn better.

To provide some context: the `/take`-bot was removed in https://github.com/scikit-learn/scikit-learn/pull/31568, and the Contributing guide has already been updated accordingly in the developer version. You can view it [here](https://scikit-learn.org/dev/developers/contributing.html#contributing-code-and-documentation). These updates will appear in the stable documentation once v1.8 is released.

From what I can see, the developer version already covers the main points you mentioned. I think this can be considered resolved, but please let me know if you feel there's still something missing.

Labels: Documentation