Well, externals that are not yet members (with GitLab “developer” rights) cannot assign a ticket to themselves. And we can only assign to those who are already in the group.
But the idea is indeed very interesting. I saw something like that already from the DEI team: but they put it into the discussion.fp → e.g., that: Help wanted: Contribute to Fedora D.E.I. Team documentation
Maybe we could start to do that as well? That may gather some interest. And I think more people look into discussion.fp. What do you think?