FreeBSD bugzilla, bureaucracy and obstacles (was: Can someone please post a concise list of things maintainers are supposed to do?)

On 17/07/2023 08:04, Stefan Bethke wrote:
> … conflicting instructions … bureaucratic …

I pay relatively little attention to ports tree-related bug reports. 
This is not wilful ignorance; it's mostly because the doc tree is/was a 
focus. BRs that catch my eye, that I speed-read without changing the 
status to open, include those that might have a non-obvious CVE/security 
aspect.

A bigger picture – not limited to ports – might help other readers to 
put things in perspective. <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Bugzilla> has ten 
public sub-pages (the array at the foot of the page), plus at least two 
private sub-pages to which I neither have, nor require, access.

Given what's in the wiki – with or without interleaving of related 
content in the official FreeBSD Documentation Portal and elsewhere – 
it's simply impossible to adhere to everything that's suggested or 
required.

Impossible partly because there's conflicting guidance.

So, in many cases: common sense and brevity apply.

For me, the greatest obstacles to progress are:

a) absences of FreshPorts URLs – 
<https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=266880> would be a 
start, but not as streamlined as I'd like

b) the largely broken/meaningless dashboard – far less easy to fix.

Back to Stefan's cases: amongst the resources that may be most relevant 
is <https://wiki.freebsd.org/Bugzilla/ThePerfectPortsIssue>.

HTH