Mentors get a reminder, and a request that goes unanswered closes after a week

When you send a mentor a request, they get one email. Until now nothing followed it, and a request could sit unanswered for weeks while you waited on a page that would never change. Two things have changed.

A mentor with a request waiting is now reminded once a day, for at most three days, and the reminder says who is asking and what about rather than only that something is waiting. Three is the limit on purpose: a mentor who has not answered after three reminders is not going to, and we would rather stop than nag.

After seven days without an answer the request closes on its own and we email you to say so. The wording is careful because a silence is far more often a busy month than a judgement: the mentor did not accept and might not be available right now. The useful part is the nudge to ask somebody else — your recommendations page always has three mentors picked for you.