Pumpkins and Jack 'o' Lanterns can only be placed on solid blocks

This happens when placing pumpkins on top of transparent blocks (such as ice, glass, leaves, glowstone, farmland, slabs, stairs, fences, and more).

Intended.

Pumpkins cannot be placed without a [solid] block under them.
However, you can place them and remove the block directly beneath and it will remain in place.

-Minecraft Wiki - Note that it isn't in the "Bugs" section of the page

Known behavior doesn't mean it's not a bug and the wiki is neither an official source for bugs nor for intended behaviors.

Same thing happens with melon blocks too

More to the point, given the workaround described in the wiki, pumpkins and melons are /needlessly/ awkward to place, because you can always just place another block, place the pumpkin, then remove the other block. Given the workaround, all the restriction does is make placing pumpkins slower for no good reason.

Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version 1.6.4 / Launcher version 1.2.5 ? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.

Yes, they are still /needlessly/ awkward to place. I don't understand why this rather arbitrary restriction was ever applied in the first place. How does it add to the game?

PS It's especially annoying in creative mode.

This is still an issue in 1.7.4; I understand that it was coded to be placed like this, but this is a major annoyance. Why should I need to place it on top of a solid block if after placing it I can remove the solid block. What is the purpuse other than making it annoying to place pumpkins, jack o'lanterns, fence gates, etc?

Also note that at first fences were like this as well and also working as intended but then they were changed because it was a pain to work with them for no good reason.

Still an issue in 1.8.4. Please reopen.

The current behavior of pumpkins and Jack'o lanterns is even inconsistent with how melons are placed.

@Koala_eiO, the devs closed this report as Working as Intended. For feature suggestions or changes please do this on Minecraft Suggestions on Reddit.