Block accidental "Assign me" and status changes

[era]

A common mistake by unsophisticated Launchpad users is to accidentally change the Status or Assigned field on bugs which they should not be able to change.

I'm not sure how to prevent this, but it is a common problem, and causes disruptions (witness e.g. lp:1268257 which apparently disappeared from the radar because a neophyte marked it as Fixed; see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-331/+bug/1268257/comments/259 for a vocal complaint).

One approach would be to make status changes a privileged operation which would only be granted under some conditions by a Launchpad administrator. This creates administrative hassle, but should certainly block the vast majority of accidental clicks.

Another possible solution would be to display a warning dialog THE FIRST TIME a user attempts to do this, and offer them an explanation of the meaning of this action (probably in and of itself an improvement!) and an opportunity to opt out. Maybe provide a checkbox on each user's profile page to re-enable the warning in case you opted in once by mistake in spite of the warning, or as a one-time exception.

I'm certainly open to other proposals as well, but I would like to stop wasting time and effort on a problem which is caused by a rather basic UI mistake.

[era (era)]

Tangentially, see also lp:1100098 -- I thought I saw a similar bug for Assignee, but I can't find it now.

[era (era)]

Another possibility: After the action, display a warning with an undo link.

   You have assigned this bug to {yourself|Mark Shuttleworth|whoever}.
   The assignee is responsible for developing a fix for this bug.
   If you do not have the authority and mandate to assign bugs, please [undo this change].

I'm sure the wording can be improved, especially for the last sentence.

I kind of like this idea; the undo functionality might turn out be useful for other things as well.

[era (era)]

Also, vaguely related: lp:249161 -- I have never seen that warning, does it still exist?