PR backlog

[M. Warner Losh]

Mark and Henrik make a number of good points here.  Rather than reply
to the details, I'm going to make a couple of quick observations.

As a project we're not leveraging the community sufficiently when it
comes to contributions.  The current system of patch review and
submission is very hap-hazard.  If you happen to get the attention of
the right person at the right time, then it goes in.  If not, patches
can languish a long time in the PR system.

The PR system is also the wrong tool for the job.  While Mark touches
on the cultural issues in play, they are exacerbated by the
misapplication of a problem system to be a patch submission and
tracking system.  Maybe we need to adopt a practice from the Linux
community.  At least for arm kernel patches, there is a two step
process: submit it to a mailing list for review and refinement, with
the second step being submitting it into a queue.  I'm not sure the
details we need to be successful in the FreeBSD project.

Many of the USB patches in the PR system I left alone because I didn't
have the time and/or knowledge to evaluate them for inclusion, or I
saw something obviously wrong in the patch.  When I was trying to just
get through the obviously trivial patches.

Warner