JIRA grasshopper seeks enlightened mentor(s)

So: I lost my AO when something accidentally replaced it and headed into JIRA to vote for the bug fix and then *whoops!* hours later I'm still wandering through the labyrinth. I started to make a (txt) list of feature requests and bug reports grouped by category so I could see if my pet peeves are represented... which led to me getting all tangled up in duplicates and sub-topics and relationships. My rope is fraying & I'm getting nervous about bumping into a minotaur- will someone hand me a map before I loose my nerve?

Here's where I'm stuck:

Marking duplicates: ya, push the button and enter the number, got it But for feature requests I'm assuming you only mark identical solutions as duplicates rather than different solutions to the same problem. I'm guessing in those cases you declare a relationship...

What's the difference between "relates to" and "is related to" - is there some kind of hierarchy here? How does the meta-issue system trickle down?

How do sub-tasks work? They're primarily for bug tracking and fixing, right? What I want to know is how do you organize it once you get past components:

Project: 1. Second Life Viewer - VWR
Components: Inventory?

I get there and it's just a mess! I feel like there should be sub-categories but I can't seem to find them.

Is there a way to quickly get an overview of the taxonomy- for ex. generate a relationship map? I've made my own and I'd like to see how it matches up against what's already there-- without going cross-eyed if possible (please, please tell me it's possible or can be made so)!

Hopefully,
ST

I found myself some help here: https://developer.openx.org/wiki/display/COMM/JIRA+Basics

That seems to say that Sub-tasks can be used to way- but the JIRA interface only lets me add new issues not link existing ones.

I'm kinda getting the hang of the meta-issue flow and coming to grips with the fact that it breaks down pretty high-up in the relationship line. I've created a JIRA asking for improved documentation

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-757

Possible the jira page in the wiki might be of some help: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Issue_tracker .

Thanks SuezanneC-

what I'm looking for is almost there but not quite. I did check out the link to the transcript at the bottom, too, but no joy there either.

I figured that would be too simple.

When I first saw your thread title, I thought I'd be able to help by saying something like "To vote, click on the Vote button" or something like that. No such luck.

Maybe the jira user's guide at atlassian: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/docs/latest/introduction.html

Now THAT's the bizniz! There are still some differences in implementation that I need clarification on (sub-tasks have hardly been used at all to create order, and the link options explained in the user guide make much more sense to me than the "refers to" and "is referred to" that I see in ours) but I'm feeling slightly less confused.