Usability issues when using the issue tracker
Two issues:
Sometimes it could be useful to remove a comment altogether, for example if a preceding comment was edited and a following comment makes no sense at all any more. Of course one can edit the content and erase it.
It would be nice to allow changing the issue information and project information when editing a comment. That would allow to correct a status that was inadvertently set without having to post a new empty comment. Status changes can get lost when two people post to the same issue at the same time.
Comments
1/ A solution is to make editing comments not possible. I deployed an in between fix. You can edit a comment up to 43200 seconds after submission, i.e. 12 hours. I can set this value to anything.
2/ Good idea, but dismissed by the Drupal project module maintainer. See http://drupal.org/node/213037#comment-719517 So we need to live with the special cases.
Feel free to open this issue again if you feel like it.
Regarding number 1)
I don't understand your answer "A solution is to make editing comments not possible.". How would that help with deleting a comment altogether? Let me repeat: Being able to edit a comment is highly useful, to correct spelling, clarify or add new facts. It also allows to capture a comment in stages. So please don't change this feature.
On top of being able to edit a comment, I think it would be useful to be able to delete it (since it is already possible to remove its content).
Regarding number 2)
If I read the reference correctly, it says that yes, it's a desirable feature, but too hard to implement.
Indeed, a rather confusing explanation. Here comes a better one.
Both proposed cases (deleting comments and editing issue fields) are totally valid. Unfortunately, they come with more complexity and drawbacks. The complexity is mostly on technical level and if that complexity is not covered by the Drupal dev community, we won't implement it either. It's a strategic choice to make sure we don't waste our scarce resources. The drawbacks are mostly on UI/UX level. When you post a comment, it gets sent via email to subscribers and syndicated via rss. What if people already posted a reply to a comment and you remove the comment. These are just two drawbacks that I can think of from the top of my mind.
Last thing I want to say about this is that musescore.org is constructed by copying a lot of the functionality and design choices made on drupal.org. Following a great example has served us well since we can further concentrate on our core business, being MuseScore, rather than developing functionality in Drupal.
Well, comment can get deleted in other forums.
And they can in MuseScore.org too, albeit not directly but via 'mark as spam'. Or would that cause trouble to the (legitimate) user?
Comments do not get deleted when using the mark as spam. At a certain threshold, they get unpublished.
Please, do not misuse this anti spam feature. I have spent a tremendous time fighting these people, so don't make me even loose more time on this already.
OK, understood.
I just noticed: Musescore.com lets you delete comments ;-)