What is wrong with Bugzilla?

[Zack Weinberg]

R Hill <dirtyepic.sk@gmail.com> writes:
> Joe Buck wrote:
>> [The request to create a login] also helps assure that the bug
>> filer is a real person.  If Bugzilla provided an anonymous way to
>> file Bugzilla reports, we'd probably have spammers filling the bug
>> database with ads for penis enlargement.
>
> RESOLVED: WORKSFORME

I laughed, but Joe is right.  The Debian bug database, which creates
new bug reports for every message sent to its submit@ address, has had
to institute aggressive automated spam filtering, and its bugmasters
still spend plenty of time weeding spam out of the database.

However, Ross is also right; it is one more hoop to jump through to
submit a bug report, and privacy concerns aside, some people may just
get annoyed and give up at that point.

A possible happy medium might be to merge the two forms for people who
aren't already logged in:-

 --- 
 Bugzilla does not know who you are.  We need a valid email address
 for you so that we can contact you to discuss your bug report.

 If you already have an account, enter your email address and password
 below.  If you don't, enter your email address and leave the password
 field blank; Bugzilla will email you a password.

 Email address: |----------|
 Password:      |----------|
 ---
 [existing tell-us-about-the-bug form here]

Could probably be improved further; I just made that up off the top of
my head.

zw