title: How to avoid merge-commit hell on GitHub/BitBucket
body: <p>We're ending up with a lot of commits like this in our repo:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Merge branch 'master' of bitbucket.org:user/repo
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This happens every time a developer syncs his/hers local fork to the top-level repo.</p>
  
  <p>Is there anyway to avoid this merge-commit hell from cluttering all the repo log? Can one avoid them when initiating the pull-requests in some way?</p>
  
  <p>I know I can do git rebase if this is done in my local VM only, is there any equivalence in the GitHub/BitBucket UI?</p>
  
  <p>How do you guys do it?</p>