I think it’s true that I didn’t make enough distinction between issues for bugs and issues for other things. The bug triage board and the status messages it generates are decent at letting people know what’s up. I do kind of think if a bug has been on the pile for months without any notes about the reasons why it’s given the priority level it has or added info from coders, it’s less than ideal, and leaves anyone experiencing or reporting that bug wondering if anything is ever going to be done, though. And if you’ve had a bug assigned to you for months, a notice about status and reason is useful! There are cases where it would make sense for a newcomer to stick their nose in and offer to pick up a bug from an overworked teammmber, and cases where that would only make more work for everyone. “Self-assigned sept 2020” gives zero insight into which it is unless someone tracks down and asks the person in question.
As feature requests and proposals specifically… I have seen or had FRs and PRs closed and denied entirely because the requested/submitted feature was deemed undesirable, not just the implementation. Its not common, but it happens. And that’s fine, good even! Some ideas are bad, counterproductive, or plain redundant in ways that are not initially obvious to the person who came up with them.
As well, many FRs (many of mine for sure, and I would expect a decent portion of others too well) include at least high level implementation suggestions, and SCP members often have a different perspective on what’s good or bad there than outsiders. Again, that’s normal and overall good.
Now perhaps an FR not being closed in rejection or not having changes suggested should be considered a tacit acceptance after a certain amount of time, but I personally don’t think that follows too well. I think it’s more likely that people are busy and commenting on FRs can fall down low on the priority list.
If I’m thinking about picking up a feature to implement, the possibility that someone on the dev team has a strong opinion about it that won’t be expressed until it’s in PR stage gives me pause. Maybe that’s just a me thing, I don’t know. But while it may seem like noise to you, to me having comments from coders like “This seems worthwhile if someone has the time” feels like a decent preliminary green light, or things like “I don’t know this system but I think @m!m might have a useful opinion” give a lead for someone to start asking questions to get that green light. If the only comments are “I have no idea what you’re talking about or if it’d be good” then that’s a sign that maybe the proposal was a bit half baked and maybe needs to be workshopped on discord some I guess? Having no comments but the label assignment just leaves me entirely wondering if anyone has even given it more than a moment's thought.
Edit:
I assume you aren't advocating that every FR get a "I do not oppose this feature" from every active SCP member?
Certainly not. I think a single 'sounds good to me' is useful, but I don't suggest that everyone needs to comment on every FR. My intention was to suggest every FR should probably get at least one dev comment before it's idk, a month old? But not that every dev needs to weigh in on every issue. Maybe if all you have to say is '"I do not oppose this feature" it's worth tossing it out into discord or such to see if anyone else has anything more insightful to say, and if not, then at least it can be upgraded to "Myself and [other people] don't see anything wrong with this." But needing only one dev comment is a big part of making it realistic to catch up and maintain.