1. Every port should have a package on every platform.

Ports that are BROKEN, IGNORE, or that fail to build - pointyhat could produce a no-op package which simply prints a message describing why the package is not available.  The benefit of this is that people don't end up wondering why a package is not available.  I think this suggestion has come up before.

Ports that are NO_PACKAGE or RESTRICTED - it would be cool if packages for these ports actually contained the port itself.  A well known example is sysutils/screen, which is NO_PACKAGE.  For example, "pkg_add -r screen" would fetch the package, unroll the port into a temporary build area, and build and install screen.

2. Searching for pkg_add

Sometimes it's not easy to remember the exact name of a package you're trying to add with -r.  Some sort of searching facility available from pkg_add would be nice.  Or, when packages are not found, search and suggest possible alternatives.

3. Better problem reporting web interface for ports

send-pr and its web equivalent are more or less fine for frequent users submitting port updates or fixes.  But they do nothing to weed out bogus ports problem reports.  It would be good to have a web interface for users who are trying to work through a ports problem, with filing a PR as a last resort.  For example,

- ask which port they are submitting a report for.
- check pointyhat build status, maybe suggest using a package if one is available, or comparing their build to the pointyhat log.
- tell them some basic stuff like "make sure your ports tree is up to date".  Ask what their port version is.  Compare to latest.
- Search existing problem reports and mailing lists; return the top 10 or so results that might be related to their issue.
- Some errors are easily identifiable (eg. "libm.so.3 not found").  Build a list of common error messages.  Get users to cut/paste errors and compare against common error messages; suggest a workaround or fix.
- Try not to be too annoying for more capable users, while still weeding out PRs that just have no content except for "doesn't build" :-)
- Also, there might not always be a need to file a PR - but such an interface could always keep stats on what ports people are having the most trouble with.