[beagle3]

There are several bug tracking systems that store their data inside the repository (and as a result, branch / merge / push / pull automatically) -- including the venerable "vi bugs.txt" system which works surprisingly well from experience.

What fossil brings that those systems don't is indeed the network effect as you pointed out. It's integrated with the web frontend, and is thus used by everyone using fossil and fossil's bug tracking, based on experience with cvstrac, is low ceremony, easy to use and reasonably effective -- even more than "vi bugs.txt" which sets a remarkably low ceremony bar.

[JoshTriplett]

That's exactly what I'd love to have, just without the opinionated differences in things like rebase, staging, branching, and similar.