Comment 11 for bug 1033598

Aarre is completely correct. Fanatically clinging to bug heat as a measure of the importance of solving this issue demonstrates a short-sighted administrative rigidity that cannot fail to scare away new users.

Aarre was also correct to describe this situation as a "Catch-22". Anyone who has read Heller's classic novel will immediately recognize the paradigm:

   1) I can't create an Ubuntu Single Sign-on account because the captchas are impossible to get right in a reasonable number of efforts.
   2) Because I can't create an Ubuntu Single Sign-on account, I can't complain about this in forums accessible only with an Ubuntu Single Sign-on account, nor can I create a bug report. Why would anyone expect new users to be savvy or invested enough to formally create a bug report anyway?
   3) Because the bug itself prevents the natural accumulation of "bug heat" that would cause it to be resolved and because administrators insist on slavish adherence to a prioritization mechanism that is clearly inapplicable in this context, this issue has remained unaddressed for more than 3 years, frustrating and turning away potential Linux converts by the dozens.

And when the problems with this approach are clearly articulated (thank you, aarre), the official response focuses solely on ways to increase the bug heat rather than on ways to actually solve the problem.

If I were a newcomer, eager to explore an exciting new path through open-source solutions (and this is exactly what I am), I'd have to be wondering by now whether this is the kind of forward-thinking, problem-solving community of fully engaged users that I was hoping to find. And I might give up and look elsewhere.