It seems, patches are often lost "somewhere in mailing list archives"
Indeed, because we've been unable to process them in time. And there is no fully automated system to show what the patch status is.
I still have no idea why this way of distributing patches is prefferable over native github PRs
Indeed. At minimum we should clearly state why we prefer email patches over GitHub PRs. Then revisit the arguments every now and then, and adapt as necessary.
-- Samuli Seppänen Community Manager OpenVPN Technologies, Inc irc freenode net: mattock
