179944 - Permissions page should instruct users how to earn permissions

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(bugzilla.mozilla.org :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Damian Yerrick]

A user can earn 'canconfirm' permissions on bugzilla.mozilla.org by
filing three good bug reports.
  http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/unconfirmed.html
  http://www.gerv.net/hacking/before-you-mail-gerv.html

A user can earn 'editbugs' permissions on bugzilla.mozilla.org by
attaching test cases to two bugs,
  http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/bugathon.html
by attaching patches to two bugs, or by making good suggestions for
changes to fields such as Summary, Keywords, or Component in three bugs.
  http://www.gerv.net/hacking/before-you-mail-gerv.html

But from the Permissions pane in a user's preferences page, it's not
entirely clear how to earn those permissions.  It'd be more convenient
for the user if the permissions page linked to pages that describe the
permissions that the "common user" can earn, such as the pages I listed.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Create a new account.
2. Log in.
3. Report some bugs.
4. Get a general feel for the norms of the b.m.o community.
5. Try to make a change, and get an error message about lacking permissions.
6. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=permissions

Actual Results:
  You don't have any permission bits set

Expected Results:
  You don't have any permission bits set.  Common permissions include
  the ability to confirm unconfirmed bugs and the ability to edit the
  fields at the top of each bug.  For more information, see the Mozilla
  Quality Assurance pages.
    http://www.mozilla.org/quality/help/unconfirmed.html
    http://www.mozilla.org/newlayout/bugathon.html
    http://www.gerv.net/hacking/before-you-mail-gerv.html

Comment 1

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

This sounds like a Gerv thing. :)

Reassign back to me if you cook up something on this, I can hack a template or
whatever :)

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

hmmm, I intended to reassign to Gerv there and apparently missed.  See comment 1.

Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

Dave: can you manually insert the following at the bottom of the "auth_failure"
error message in user-error.html.tmpl on b.m.o.?

If you are attempting to confirm an unconfirmed bug or edit the fields of a bug,
 <a
href="http://www.gerv.net/hacking/before-you-mail-gerv.html#bugzilla-permissions">find
out how to get the necessary permissions</a>.

Gerv

Comment 4

[Tom]

This bug is related to Bug #310259
Please consider giving reporters confirm permissions. For instance, bug #266273
I reported has been confirmed, but I can not change the status. This is annoying.

Comment 5

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

I need to write a patch adding a hook here (as it seems like a good place for one), and then write another one to use the hook to insert the relevant text. 

Gerv

Comment 6

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

I filed bug 364858 on getting a hook added. I'll add the text to bmo when the hook is added.

Comment 7

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

I've done this on production bmo, but I don't know how useful it will be now that we don't even give users the ability to edit stuff any more unless they have permission. :)

Comment 8

[Damian Yerrick]

(In reply to comment #7)
> I don't know how useful it will be now
> that we don't even give users the ability to edit stuff any more

In any case, that would result in only a minor change to the steps:
1. Create a new account.
2. Log in.
3. Report some bugs.
4. Get a general feel for the Bugzilla software and the norms of the
   b.m.o community.
5. Explore your preferences:
6. http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/userprefs.cgi?tab=permissions