Posting debug logs to trac

[Graham Cole]

Long time lurker, infrequent poster...

I have a query regarding current policy for collecting debugging  
information from users. Personally, I feel uncomfortable posting the  
full output from the debugging window in Pidgin as a Trac attachment,  
as it often contains information I'd rather not place on a reasonably  
high-profile public website. Call me paranoid if you like, but I  
don't like to put e-mail addresses for half the people I know on the  
web in places where the likes of googlebot quickly snap them up.

My solution to this problem thus far has been to edit the logs by  
hand to remove identifying information. Doing this throughout the  
whole file is time consuming, thus I've been posting partial logs  
displaying only (what *I* think are) the relevant bits. This is  
certainly not ideal, as developers will rightly wonder if they're  
seeing the whole picture or not.

I'm just wondering if anyone else feels this is a problem worth  
solving. I'd be happier if Trac attachments required people to be  
logged in to view them. Even better would be if Pidgin anonymised  
exported debug data... though perhaps not such a practical suggestion.

You might suggest that I use throwaway IM accounts for capturing  
debug logs, but this is not always possible for particularly obscure  
issues. Also I can't see most people motivated enough to keep extra  
accounts around for this, though I'd guess some may share my privacy  
concerns.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

- Graham Cole