<!--IssueSummary start--> <details> <summary> Everyone can contribute. [Help move this issue forward](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/contributor-success/community-contributors-workflows/#contributor-links) while earning points, leveling up and collecting rewards. </summary> - [Close this issue](https://contributors.gitlab.com/manage-issue?action=close&projectId=278964&issueIid=207525) </details> <!--IssueSummary end--> ### Problem to solve GitLab already offers a way to prevent merge request approvals by users who have pushed commits to the merge request, or the user who has opened the merge request  What's missing here for me is the ability to prevent approvals by users who are *authors* (rather than committers) of any of the commits pushed to the merge request. As an example, let's say I cherry-pick commits by user A, and then open a merge request. GitLab offers the option to prevent me, and any users that have pushed commits to the merge requests from approving the MR, but it doesn't offer an option to prevent A from approving the MR. I'm proposing to add this option. For me, in a case like this, it doesn't matter who committed the patch, rather, what matters is who authored the patch (as an extreme case imagine a scenario where all commits in the MR are by user A - it doesn't seem right that A should be able to approve such a request). As far as I remember, this used to be the default, but it changed with a recent update.