diff --git a/lib/tests/maintainers.nix b/lib/tests/maintainers.nix
index cb1e9ddd5288..be1c8aaa85c5 100644
--- a/lib/tests/maintainers.nix
+++ b/lib/tests/maintainers.nix
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 # to run these tests (and the others)
 # nix-build nixpkgs/lib/tests/release.nix
+# These tests should stay in sync with the comment in maintainers/maintainers-list.nix
 { # The pkgs used for dependencies for the testing itself
   pkgs ? import ../.. {}
 , lib ? pkgs.lib
diff --git a/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix b/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
index dd72cad382eb..09b3183e2f01 100644
--- a/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
+++ b/maintainers/maintainer-list.nix
@@ -3,12 +3,13 @@
     handle = {
       # Required
       name = "Your name";
-      email = "address@example.org";
 
-      # Optional
+      # Optional, but at least one of email, matrix or githubId must be given
+      email = "address@example.org";
       matrix = "@user:example.org";
       github = "GithubUsername";
       githubId = your-github-id;
+
       keys = [{
         fingerprint = "AAAA BBBB CCCC DDDD EEEE  FFFF 0000 1111 2222 3333";
       }];
@@ -25,6 +26,9 @@
     - `githubId` is your GitHub user ID, which can be found at `https://api.github.com/users/<userhandle>`,
     - `keys` is a list of your PGP/GPG key fingerprints.
 
+    Specifying a GitHub account ensures that you automatically get a review request on
+    pull requests that modify a package for which you are a maintainer.
+
     `handle == github` is strongly preferred whenever `github` is an acceptable attribute name and is short and convenient.
 
     If `github` begins with a numeral, `handle` should be prefixed with an underscore.