What are 'File Create' participants in vscode?

Question

I tried to create a README.md file inside an empty directory in vscode and I got a text saying

"Running 'File Create' participants..."

which I had to cancel after a while before seeing my file. It is probably a vscode issue but this is another story.

I also saw the following related setting in vscode:

// Timeout in milliseconds after which file participants for create, rename, and delete are cancelled. Use `0` to disable participants.
  "files.participants.timeout": 60000,

My question is: What are Participants?

Does the above expression translate to "Running 'File Create' event handlers"? If yes, how does "Participants" differentiate from Handlers? (or is it more close to Observers/Listeners?)

Car

See #65659102 for some proposed fixes. – Amazing

@Amazing Thank you for the feedback. My question was not on how to fix the issue. It was about the meaning of File participants and the difference from concepts like handlers or listeners. – Car