RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[David Malcolm]

I believe we need some wording improvements relating to the disablement
of bugzilla account creation.

If I go to:
  https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/createaccount.cgi
I see a page reading:


BEGIN QUOTE:
To create a GCC Bugzilla account, all you need to do is to enter a
legitimate email address. You will receive an email at this address to
confirm the creation of your account. You will not be able to log in
until you receive the email. If it doesn't arrive within a reasonable
amount of time, you may contact the maintainer of this GCC Bugzilla
installation at overseers@gcc.gnu.org.

[snip]
END QUOTE


Sadly, due to spamming, most of the above is either untrue or
misleading. Can we change the wording on that page to something like:

BEGIN SUGGESTION
Sadly, due to heavy spamming, there is no automated way to create a GCC
Bugzilla account.

To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
(irc.oftc.net).

[snip]

END SUGGESTION



If users *do* fill in the form, they get to a page which reads:

BEGIN QUOTE:
<RED>User account creation has been restricted. Contact your
administrator or the maintainer (overseers@gcc.gnu.org) for information
about creating an account.</RED> Please press Back and try again.
END QUOTE

(this was attempted using my personal gmail.com account, rather than my
regular redhat.com account)

This wording could also be improved.

"User account creation" doesn't make it clear that it's a site-wide
thing, the "user" in question could well be interpreted as relating to
the individual user (and I hear anecdotal reports on IRC that people are
trying this and thinking "oh, is it because I'm on gmail" or whatnot).

Also the "Please press Back and try again." is plain wrong; if someone
retries, it isn't going to make it work, as I understand things.

I'm guessing that the red text is from a BZ parameter, in which case it
may be easier to modify.

Suggested rewording of red text:
"Sadly, due to spamming, we've had to disable automated account
creation.

To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
(irc.oftc.net)."

(we could have s/creation/creation for that domain/ maybe, if that's the
case?).

(Alternatively, a captcha, or somesuch, but clearly that's a lot of
extra work.

Or make the original field on the createaccount.cgi hidden to humans,
and add a human-visible field with a different key, so the spammers are
POSTing to the wrong field, so that their queries are easily
distinguishable from benign activity - we reject POSTs where the
invisible field is nonblank - though, again, that's nontrivial coding
(and I don't know Perl)).

Hope this is constructive, but I think we're making it unreasonably
difficult to file bug reports, and thus likely missing out on the more
casual contributions to GCC etc.

Dave

Re: RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[Gerald Pfeifer]

I do agree with this.

Who can make these changes?

Gerald

On Mon, 2 Feb 2015, David Malcolm wrote:
> I believe we need some wording improvements relating to the disablement 
> of bugzilla account creation.
> 
> If I go to:
>   https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/createaccount.cgi
> I see a page reading:
> 
> 
> BEGIN QUOTE:
> To create a GCC Bugzilla account, all you need to do is to enter a
> legitimate email address. You will receive an email at this address to
> confirm the creation of your account. You will not be able to log in
> until you receive the email. If it doesn't arrive within a reasonable
> amount of time, you may contact the maintainer of this GCC Bugzilla
> installation at overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> 
> [snip]
> END QUOTE
> 
> 
> Sadly, due to spamming, most of the above is either untrue or
> misleading. Can we change the wording on that page to something like:
> 
> BEGIN SUGGESTION
> Sadly, due to heavy spamming, there is no automated way to create a GCC
> Bugzilla account.
> 
> To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
> (irc.oftc.net).
> 
> [snip]
> 
> END SUGGESTION
> 
> 
> 
> If users *do* fill in the form, they get to a page which reads:
> 
> BEGIN QUOTE:
> <RED>User account creation has been restricted. Contact your
> administrator or the maintainer (overseers@gcc.gnu.org) for information
> about creating an account.</RED> Please press Back and try again.
> END QUOTE
> 
> (this was attempted using my personal gmail.com account, rather than my
> regular redhat.com account)
> 
> This wording could also be improved.
> 
> "User account creation" doesn't make it clear that it's a site-wide
> thing, the "user" in question could well be interpreted as relating to
> the individual user (and I hear anecdotal reports on IRC that people are
> trying this and thinking "oh, is it because I'm on gmail" or whatnot).
> 
> Also the "Please press Back and try again." is plain wrong; if someone
> retries, it isn't going to make it work, as I understand things.
> 
> I'm guessing that the red text is from a BZ parameter, in which case it
> may be easier to modify.
> 
> Suggested rewording of red text:
> "Sadly, due to spamming, we've had to disable automated account
> creation.
> 
> To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
> (irc.oftc.net)."
> 
> (we could have s/creation/creation for that domain/ maybe, if that's the
> case?).
> 
> (Alternatively, a captcha, or somesuch, but clearly that's a lot of
> extra work.
> 
> Or make the original field on the createaccount.cgi hidden to humans,
> and add a human-visible field with a different key, so the spammers are
> POSTing to the wrong field, so that their queries are easily
> distinguishable from benign activity - we reject POSTs where the
> invisible field is nonblank - though, again, that's nontrivial coding
> (and I don't know Perl)).
> 
> Hope this is constructive, but I think we're making it unreasonably
> difficult to file bug reports, and thus likely missing out on the more
> casual contributions to GCC etc.
> 
> Dave

Re: RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[Joseph Myers]

Recent messages to overseers are still quoting the old, misleading 
wording.  Can we get David's improved wording (or, better, reenable 
account creation - I expect we're losing lots of useful bug reports 
through the restriction) in place sooner rather than later (for both GCC 
and sourceware Bugzilla)?

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com

On Sun, 15 Mar 2015, Gerald Pfeifer wrote:

> I do agree with this.
> 
> Who can make these changes?
> 
> Gerald
> 
> On Mon, 2 Feb 2015, David Malcolm wrote:
> > I believe we need some wording improvements relating to the disablement 
> > of bugzilla account creation.
> > 
> > If I go to:
> >   https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/createaccount.cgi
> > I see a page reading:
> > 
> > 
> > BEGIN QUOTE:
> > To create a GCC Bugzilla account, all you need to do is to enter a
> > legitimate email address. You will receive an email at this address to
> > confirm the creation of your account. You will not be able to log in
> > until you receive the email. If it doesn't arrive within a reasonable
> > amount of time, you may contact the maintainer of this GCC Bugzilla
> > installation at overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> > 
> > [snip]
> > END QUOTE
> > 
> > 
> > Sadly, due to spamming, most of the above is either untrue or
> > misleading. Can we change the wording on that page to something like:
> > 
> > BEGIN SUGGESTION
> > Sadly, due to heavy spamming, there is no automated way to create a GCC
> > Bugzilla account.
> > 
> > To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> > Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
> > (irc.oftc.net).
> > 
> > [snip]
> > 
> > END SUGGESTION
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > If users *do* fill in the form, they get to a page which reads:
> > 
> > BEGIN QUOTE:
> > <RED>User account creation has been restricted. Contact your
> > administrator or the maintainer (overseers@gcc.gnu.org) for information
> > about creating an account.</RED> Please press Back and try again.
> > END QUOTE
> > 
> > (this was attempted using my personal gmail.com account, rather than my
> > regular redhat.com account)
> > 
> > This wording could also be improved.
> > 
> > "User account creation" doesn't make it clear that it's a site-wide
> > thing, the "user" in question could well be interpreted as relating to
> > the individual user (and I hear anecdotal reports on IRC that people are
> > trying this and thinking "oh, is it because I'm on gmail" or whatnot).
> > 
> > Also the "Please press Back and try again." is plain wrong; if someone
> > retries, it isn't going to make it work, as I understand things.
> > 
> > I'm guessing that the red text is from a BZ parameter, in which case it
> > may be easier to modify.
> > 
> > Suggested rewording of red text:
> > "Sadly, due to spamming, we've had to disable automated account
> > creation.
> > 
> > To create a GCC Bugzilla account, you can email overseers@gcc.gnu.org.
> > Alternatively, if you use IRC, you can ask on #gcc on the OFTC network
> > (irc.oftc.net)."
> > 
> > (we could have s/creation/creation for that domain/ maybe, if that's the
> > case?).
> > 
> > (Alternatively, a captcha, or somesuch, but clearly that's a lot of
> > extra work.
> > 
> > Or make the original field on the createaccount.cgi hidden to humans,
> > and add a human-visible field with a different key, so the spammers are
> > POSTing to the wrong field, so that their queries are easily
> > distinguishable from benign activity - we reject POSTs where the
> > invisible field is nonblank - though, again, that's nontrivial coding
> > (and I don't know Perl)).
> > 
> > Hope this is constructive, but I think we're making it unreasonably
> > difficult to file bug reports, and thus likely missing out on the more
> > casual contributions to GCC etc.
> > 
> > Dave

Re: RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[Frank Ch. Eigler]

Hi -

On Thu, Apr 23, 2015 at 10:57:22PM +0000, Joseph Myers wrote:

> [...] Can we get David's improved wording (or, better, reenable 
> account creation [...]

The wording is contained in the file
/sourceware/bugzilla/gcc-bugzilla/template/en/default/account/create.html.tmpl
and could be changed.  However, I'd prefer to reenable account
creation (on a trial basis at least), but lack notes as to how that
is to be done.  Frédéric?

- FChE

Re: RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[Frédéric Buclin]

Le 24. 04. 15 01:11, Frank Ch. Eigler a écrit :
> However, I'd prefer to reenable account
> creation (on a trial basis at least), but lack notes as to how that
> is to be done.  Frédéric?

You want it to be reenabled on srw Bugzilla only or also GCC Bugzilla?

Re: RFE: Improvements to wording of bugzilla account-creation pages?

[Joseph Myers]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 384 bytes --]

On Fri, 24 Apr 2015, Frédéric Buclin wrote:

> Le 24. 04. 15 01:11, Frank Ch. Eigler a écrit :
> > However, I'd prefer to reenable account
> > creation (on a trial basis at least), but lack notes as to how that
> > is to be done.  Frédéric?
> 
> You want it to be reenabled on srw Bugzilla only or also GCC Bugzilla?

My view is both.

-- 
Joseph S. Myers
joseph@codesourcery.com