There was a patch for 0.17.5. Here's the diff in bug_update_advanced_page.php (you could make a similar change in bug_update_page.php as well):

*** /tmp/bug_update_advanced_page-1.1.1.1.php 2003-04-10 17:37:21 -0400
--- /Users/ghenshaw/Sites/mantis/bug_update_advanced_page.php 2002-11-06 15:58:43 -0500

* 132,139 **
<?php echo $s_reporter ?>
</td>
<td>
! <?php print_user( $v_reporter_id ) ?>
</td>
<td class="category">
<?php echo $s_view_status ?>
--- 132,145 ----
<?php echo $s_reporter ?>
</td>
<td>
! <?php if ( access_level_check_greater_or_equal( ADMINISTRATOR ) ) { ?>
! <select name="f_reporter_id">
! <?php print_reporter_option_list( $v_reporter_id ); ?>
! </select>
! <?php } else { ?>
! <?php print_user( $v_reporter_id ); ?>
! <?php } ?>
</td>
<td class="category">
<?php echo $s_view_status ?>

I did this long time ago in the bug update forms. Do you mean you need it in the report forms? If that is the case, then I think we should have this controllable through the configs. So for installations where all bugs are logged inline it can be set to OFF (default). As for others who get most of them on the phone/email, then it can be set to ON. Of course, the default value should always be set to the current user.

Probably, we should consider having it as a threshold rather than ON/OFF. For example, only UPDATER and above can set it, for reporters, it has to be the current user. Actually, this makes more sense.

yes, I guess this does make some sense alright. Then you could even have a system where viewers couldn't report bugs directly, but could view the bugs in the system that they "reported" through some other mechanism.

can't update bug to acknowledged. please acknowledge or assign.

We are tracking this request in 0007450; if you think this is not a duplicate, feel free to reopen.