> Someone wants to help me fix a bug? Cool! They got my code from GitHub and modified it. Now they want their changes to be merged into my version. They submit a pull request. A what? They want me to pull their code into mine? Why isn't it called a push request, where they request permission to push their changes into my maintained repository?
If you haven't given them push privileges to your repository, they can't push anything to it. That's why they have to request you to do it... And then it isn't a push, now is it? They're asking you to get code from their repo; that's a pull.
The larger issue is of course that many people never use the git CLI with remote repositories: Far, far too many think that "GitHub is git." Dunno if that's what's happened in your case: You write, "They got my code from GitHub..." If they'd got it from a git repo on your server directly, their "pull request" would consist of an e-mail or something asking you to check out their code, and then you would do that in your repository by typing a command literally starting with "git pull ..."
If you haven't given them push privileges to your repository, they can't push anything to it. That's why they have to request you to do it... And then it isn't a push, now is it? They're asking you to get code from their repo; that's a pull.
The larger issue is of course that many people never use the git CLI with remote repositories: Far, far too many think that "GitHub is git." Dunno if that's what's happened in your case: You write, "They got my code from GitHub..." If they'd got it from a git repo on your server directly, their "pull request" would consist of an e-mail or something asking you to check out their code, and then you would do that in your repository by typing a command literally starting with "git pull ..."