give anonymous users a hint about saving their name and email in prefs

[jidanni@…]

You have done a good job of hiding the signup link. All one can find is Login: Passwd:

Perhaps still have a link called signup, with a message about why it is turned off.

[Emmanuel Blot]

There is no "signup link" in Trac at all.

It is not hidden, it simply does not exist: you cannot signup on trac.edgewall.org, accounts are for developers only.

The signup feature is part of a Trac plugin which is not in use on trac.edgewall.org

[jidanni@…]

Well, OK, but all you are doing is

1. Not welcoming bug reports, or
2. Encouraging anonymous bug reports.

Anyway, I bet within a year you will change this policy, as it conveniences nobody…

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to jidanni@…:

Well, OK, but all you are doing is

1. Not welcoming bug reports, or

Why would you need to create an account to report a bug: simply add your email address when you report the bug. There are over 8k bug reports in Trac DB, I don't think it is an issue.

Anyway, I bet within a year you will change this policy, as it conveniences nobody…

If you say so.

[jidanni@…]

See, that's what I'm talking about in ​http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.version-control.subversion.trac.general/23615 You trac guys are quite unfamiliar with what it is like to be a regular user. Otherwise you would notice that after reporting OR replying to a bug or two, having to remember to type your email in each time says "go away" to the user.

Professionally configured bug tracking systems wouldn't let the user enter a bug successfully without ensuring that he will get notifications, And also would only ask the user to enter his credentials once.

The user should need to take special steps to be anonymous, not non-anonymous.

Anyway, try "your own medicine" for a bug or two.

No, if you just "give me an account to shut me up", that won't solve the problem in general.

[Emmanuel Blot]

Replying to jidanni@…:

Professionally configured bug tracking systems wouldn't let the user enter a bug successfully without ensuring that he will get notifications, And also would only ask the user to enter his credentials once.

Are you talking about Trac in general - in this case I would suggest you have a look at the ​th:AccountManagerPlugin- or about trac.edgewall.org specifically?

For the latter case, it's a rule Trac team has decided to follow. You may like it or not, you may call it non-professional, but no *all* users think the way you do.
I once found it quite unusual, I now think it is nice not to have to register to report a bug. Me, as a user, is tired to create accounts around the web to report the slightest single issue.

On a more general note, it seems from you last post that you're looking for a bug tracking system that behaves as Bugzilla does: maybe you should stick with bugzilla.
You can customize Trac if various different ways, but you can't ask default Trac installations to behave the exact way you think it's best.

[jidanni@…]

Say, I seem to have pasted my reply mistakenly into Bug #7999. Perhaps you can move it here. Thanks.

[Remy Blank]

Replying to jidanni@…:

You trac guys are quite unfamiliar with what it is like to be a regular user. Otherwise you would notice that after reporting OR replying to a bug or two, having to remember to type your email in each time says "go away" to the user.

Formulating your comments in a more neutral way may help in getting more sympathetic answers (or possibly any answers at all).

And also would only ask the user to enter his credentials once.

• Enable cookies on your browser
• Go to ​http://trac.edgewall.org
• Click on "Preferences" (right next to "Login")
• Enter your name and e-mail address and click "Save changes"

From that point, your name and e-mail address will be automatically inserted when you create a ticket or add a comment.

[jidanni@…]

OK, I have now discovered one indeed can click preferences without even being logged in. A novel concept for me.

OK, then in closing I would recommend that a Big Red Flag come up when one starts to enter a bug form, reminding them to login or at least set their email in the preferences.

Or, have a box for their email, initially blank, which they must either click a radio button for anonymous, or fill in their email, whereupon there would be a checkbox for "remember me".

Otherwise there will be more disasters like how I just messed up Bug #7999.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to jidanni@…:

… I would recommend that a Big Red Flag come up when one starts to enter a bug form, reminding them to login or at least set their email in the preferences.

That's a good suggestion, I think.

trac/ticket/templates/ticket.html

@@ -254 +254 @@
                 </td>
               </tr>
             </table>
+            <p py:if="author_id == 'anonymous'" class="hint">
+              E-mail address and user name can be saved in the <a href="${href.prefs()}">Preferences</a>.
+            </p>
           </fieldset>
         </div>
         <div py:if="ticket.exists" class="field">

trac/wiki/templates/wiki_edit.html

@@ -94 +94 @@
               <label>Your email or username:<br />
                 <input id="author" type="text" name="author" size="30" value="$author" />
               </label>
+              <p py:if="author == 'anonymous'" class="hint">
+                E-mail address and user name can be saved in the <a href="${href.prefs()}">Preferences</a>.
+              </p>
             </div>
             <div class="field">
               <label>Comment about this change (optional):<br />

[Noah Kantrowitz]

Replying to cboos:

Replying to jidanni@…:

… I would recommend that a Big Red Flag come up when one starts to enter a bug form, reminding them to login or at least set their email in the preferences.

That's a good suggestion, I think.

Is there a particular reason to not just save the entered value if they have nothing in the session already? That seems the most DWIM solution.

[Christian Boos]

One reason would be to avoid having to guess if the user entered a name, an email or both. The other interest is that this gives to the not logged in users the hint that they can actually save any other of the Preferences without being logged.

But those are not strong objections, of course, the conditional parsing/saving would be a good alternative as well, only a bit more involved.

[Christian Boos]

Patch from comment:9 applied in r7819. I think this does the job, but if someone feels like improving this further, please do so.

[Nicolas]

I'd call it a feature that you can file bugs without an account, unlike many other bug trackers. BugZilla, looking at you.

[jidanni@…]

All I know is the amazing amount of flexibility in track creates many surprises for the end user as he moves from one Trac site to the next.

​http://www.useit.com/alertbox often warns against such things.