0019665: Closed issues should still allow to comment - MantisBT

ID	Project	Category	View Status	Date Submitted	Last Update

0019665	mantisbt	bugtracker	public	2015-04-26 15:14	2015-05-11 11:17

Reporter	teo8976	Assigned To	atrol
Priority	normal	Severity	major	Reproducibility	always
Status	closed	Resolution	no change required

Summary	0019665: Closed issues should still allow to comment
Description	When a bug report is closed, it is impossible to comment. That's stupid. One of the most common cases is that bugs are wrongly (or questionably) closed by the developer, and the reporter or other affected users may want to suggest reopening it, or add new information about the issue that was believed to be invalid/fixed/whatever. They can't do so with Mantis (unlike every other bugtracker I've ever seen). In these cases, one is forced to file a new issue, just to reply to a comment in an issue that has been closed, hence polluting the bugtracker with garbage reports.
Steps To Reproduce	File an issue Close it Try to comment to it
Tags	No tags attached.

atrol 2015-04-26 15:49 developer ~0050622	teo8976, This is not a bug or feature request for MantisBT (you are asking for help on how to configure the system). I am therefore resolving this issue as "no change required". You can configure the status where an issue becomes readonly and you can configure the access levels required for a user to be able to modify a readonly issue. Please use the forums, the mantisbt-help mailing list or IRC to get support on customizing and using MantisBT (refer to http://www.mantisbt.org/support.php for links and further details).

teo8976 2015-04-26 16:12 reporter ~0050624	However, consider changing this to be the default. Having closed issue becoming readonly is not desirable in most cases. So, it's great that it exists as an option, but it's stupid to have it as the default configuration.

atrol 2015-04-26 16:36 developer ~0050625	Having closed issue becoming readonly is not desirable in most cases. Maybe this is not desirable for your use case, as you wrote also One of the most common cases is that bugs are wrongly (or questionably) closed by the developer I don't think that this is a most common case. We closed more than 10000 issues in this bug tracker. I remember just 2 issues where a new issue has been filed because the reporter was not able to comment or reopen a closed issue.

teo8976 2015-04-26 17:00 reporter ~0050626	One of the most common cases is that bugs are wrongly (or questionably) closed by the developer I don't think that this is a most common case. I meant one of the most common cases for the need to comment on a closed issue. We closed more than 10000 issues in this bug tracker. I remember just 2 issues where a new issue has been filed because the reporter was not able to comment or reopen a closed issue. That's a pretty flawed argument (regardless of the fact that I respect your opinion). You don't know how many users got frustrated by not being able to comment on a closed issue, you only know of the two who filed a new one because of that. Also, maybe in this bug tracker you manage bugs impeccably and don't often close issues that should not be closed. Anyway, your point seems to be that "it's not a big deal". But can you mention one advantage of having an issue be locked to comments automatically when closed, over not being so? I think normally in a bug tracker locking an issue to comments should be an extreme measure that one would only take explicitly for particular reasons (e.g. a flood of useless or rude comments)

atrol 2015-04-27 01:46 developer ~0050628	A typicall process when finishing a version is: Tag the version in SCCS Close all issues that are fixed in the version (change the status from resolved to closed) Officially release the version If you allow reporters to reopen issues, SCCS tag, change log and release notes would become inconsistent. That's why I think it's better if the reporter opens a new issue. You can discuss the new issue and close it with "No change required" if the reporter was wrong. If the developer and/or the QA team was wrong, you can deal with it as a regression, target it to next release and mention it in commit message of your SCCS. (Fix #<IdOfYourRegression>) I agree that adding a note is not that bad, but adding notes to a closed issue can easily be overlooked as closed issues are filtered out at various places (e.g. in the "Reported by Me" section of the "My View" page and default filter of the "View Issues" page) Keep also in mind, that changing our default settings will impact existing installations when upgrading.

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