Russ Allbery wrote:
It's not the request for the e-mail address. It's that it's phrased as a
login screen and a button to create an account. I know that I definitely
pause and consider before I create an account at a web site. There are
many on-line newspapers that I refuse to read articles from, for example,
because I don't want to create an account. That creates a piece of
authorization out there that I have to record a password for and that I'm
to some degree responsible for.
I think this is mostly just a matter of phrasing and presentation, though,
not a fundamental problem. (Another difficulty is that presenting a login
screen and inviting people to create an account also implies that if you
weren't already invited to create an account, someone might be upset if
you just make one. It has a very "members only" sort of feel to it.)
Ah okay, I completely misinterpreted what you meant by "alarm bells".
Sorry. I do agree with you, and I know there are a few sites that I
ignore due to their no-account-no-view policy too.
to bring in what Zack said earlier:
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.
IMHO, KDE's bugzilla[1] hits this right on the head. They're also the
only project I know who's bugzilla doesn't feel like every other
bugzilla out there, just with a different themepack.
[1] https://bugs.kde.org/
