The answer to Domingos' problem is probably called SDM. Anyone can
submit a patch (even to a specific module, RSN), the SDM can then
notify the relevant people (or just all commiters, for now).
I do not see how you can get a lower threshold, and still keep it
maintainable. I would not like to see a publicly commitable CVS,
it's just not worth the bother. A public commit CVS /might/ be
useful /if/ the CVS server does not commit the 'public' patch, but
simply mails it to the module maintainer - but if that is not a
feature of CVS, I'm not going to build it. SDM is (going to be) nice
enough.