Sometimes, we are asked to support a new service, for example a new SCM.

It can be argued that installing a new service is a matter of minutes. There are several problems with this:

• even if we are small compared to other SCM hosting providers, we host around 4000 projects. Such an amount makes you meet limits that you never reach when managing a few dozen of projects. For example, the load: it's not difficult to setup a single CVS repository; when you serve a lot of repositories, you need to make CVS write temporary files to RAM fs. You also need to automate the creation of the service, which involves contributing code to Savane - and test it extensively! So installing a new service requires much time and tests.
• any new service needs to be monitored, namely for security vulnerabilities. When a service is stable, distros can provide packages with automated solutions, which saves a lot of time. If there's not such a solution, that monitoring work needs to be done by the Savannah admins - and we do not have that much time :) If you want Savannah to support a new service and are willing to help maintain that service, regularly and in the long run, then that would fix that issue.
• some services require more resources than others. A service may work perfectly for a single repository, but may not scale :/

Hopefully this will explain why adding a new service is not that simple.

Do not take this literally though - Savannah probably can be improved to be more reactive, provide "experimental" areas, and get more contributing hackers with different experiences and views.