PR's not being picked up (Was Re: becoming a port committor)

[Charlie Kester]

On Sun 21 Nov 2010 at 20:09:23 PST Beech Rintoul wrote:
>
>That is correct, although it is possible to use a unified diff with the "-N"
>flag against a non existent source. The problem is too many contributors send
>in update pr's in shar format which are a real PITA to deal with from our end.
>
>You may notice that many pr's aren't picked up by committers for just
>that reason.

In such cases, does the submitter receive any communication explaining
the reasons his PR isn't getting worked on?  

E.g., why not send an email requesting resubmission in the proper
format?

Many of the of oldest unassigned but still-open PR's show no evidence
that they've even been looked at by a committer.  There are no entries
beyond the original one.  How can we know which PR's were rejected/not
picked up for some reason and which ones were genuinely overlooked?