Looking at Orders of monks, it's pretty clear that some orders of monks have many more members than others. For example, it seems that janitors has a dearth of members. That could mean that they could use help.
On the other hand, it may be the case that there don't need to be many janitors to do the job effectively, and that new petitioners are denied. What's more perplexing to a new Friar considering whether to petition an order is the glut of members in pmdev. Are most of these members inactive? Is the codebase really that scary, so that once they join they wish they hadn't? Or are there actually a large number of proposed contributions, only to be largely rejected by the gods?
The allure of joining an exclusive order exists by virtue of the orders being, well, exclusive. So, is joining an order something that Friars are encouraged to consider? Or is it something merely "out there", for them to take or leave as they will? Do some orders really need help more than others, or is the site getting along just fine?
I certainly don't expect the orders to beg for new members, but I wonder likewise if users are discouraged from petitioning to join overpopulated orders such as pmdev. I know that petitions to join orders are sometimes denied. For those of us who want to help, how can we know whether we should, and which order to petition to join? Is there anywhere in particular we can be most useful?