Or alternatively, keep the existing scheme but save the idea "created as" into some new field on the feature. We want to notify the actual reporter of progress of their idea, but by the time this makes its way to Jira then the original reporter is overwritten by the Product Manager who promoted.
Also, the original reporters aren't all aha users so watchers isn't a fit for us.
Thank you for your idea. It is currently possible to keep the original submitted of an idea informed of progress of that idea. There are certain idea status changes that will notify all subscribers to that idea. This article explains how these notifications work.
At this time, given the functionality explained above, we are unlikely to implement this idea. We hope you can understand.