Part of the problem is that git is a fairly poor fit for these workflows.
I spent time getting some mathematicians working together via version control rather than email, it was a bit of a mixed bag even using something simpler (e.g. svn). Eventual we moved back to email, except the rule was email me your update as a reply to the version you edited, and I scripted something to put it all into a repo on my end to manage merges etc. Worked ok. Better than the version where we locked access for edit but people forgot to unlock and went off to a conference...
If I was doing the same now, I'd probably set up on github, give each person a branch off main, and give them scripts for "send my changes" and "update other changes" - then manage all the merges behind the scenes for anyone who didn't want to bother.
I think expecting everyone in a working group to acquire the skills to deal with merge issues properly etc. is too far if they don't do any significant software work already. In the latter case., teach them.
I spent time getting some mathematicians working together via version control rather than email, it was a bit of a mixed bag even using something simpler (e.g. svn). Eventual we moved back to email, except the rule was email me your update as a reply to the version you edited, and I scripted something to put it all into a repo on my end to manage merges etc. Worked ok. Better than the version where we locked access for edit but people forgot to unlock and went off to a conference...
If I was doing the same now, I'd probably set up on github, give each person a branch off main, and give them scripts for "send my changes" and "update other changes" - then manage all the merges behind the scenes for anyone who didn't want to bother.
I think expecting everyone in a working group to acquire the skills to deal with merge issues properly etc. is too far if they don't do any significant software work already. In the latter case., teach them.