JIRA: reopening an old bug vs adding a new one?

RE these two issues, that a friend of mine was confused on...

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-423
http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5661

The issues are the same - if you open a group-info window and click on the charter text you get that damn pop-up asking if you want to save your changes, even if you haven't changed anything. Annoying..

VWR-423 was resolved last August. The symptom came back with the latest RC viewer so she added VWR-5661.

Somebody closed the new issue and re-opened the old issue because:


I, like Sindy, the person who added both issues, think that if something is fixed then breaks again, it deserves a new bug. LL, no offense to them!, has a habit of breaking things that used to work so if old/fixed bugs are always re-opened, it seems like it would be less confusing to have a new issue when they introduce a regression.

Any comments on this? Better to add a new issue or re-open the old one?

Sorry, the links weren't opening for me so didn't check them out. I think sticking with the first one is less confusing... Can't it be edited or revised by the original 'issue opener'? She could add 'Re-opened for the RC at such and such date' at the top.

As for the issue itself, it is a bit annoying. It certainly confused me at first (until I realized it was a bug). I'll go vote for it, ty.

Personally, I think making a new issue is the way to go, as many of the comments and reproductions for the issue may no longer be correct or relevant to the new issue, even if it seems similar. My 2 cents.

I'd personally reopen the old bug, but it seems LL's preference is to favour new ones.

I filed a bug on the broken friends list on August 3rd 2007 which was repeatedly ignored until they broke it even worse in 1.19.0, resulting in a new JIRA on February 5th 2008. For some reason people have been repeatedly reopening mine only to have it closed again by Lindens as a "duplicate" of one filed 6 months later.

It certainly makes them look better to have newer timestamps on bugs.

I tend to agree with Darien here. The old comments and repros may not apply to the new situation. Also, if you have already voted for the original issue, you can't vote for it again to indicate that it is a widespread reoccurance.

Good Point.

So, who closed the new issue, Meade? Is it really 'the way things are done in JIRA'? (as you quoted...)

/me gets nervous about naming names and pretends to not hear the question, even if the name is shown in JIRA.

LL websites have been a little flaky today. Maybe you just caught it at a bad time?


I don't think they do it to make themselves look better. It's just a lot easier to manage if you get a new bug to work on after there have been lots of code changes.

Annoying? Sure, sometimes. Sleazy? Not too much..

Oops, you're right - was able to access just now, sorry. (And it was a dumb question on my part, lol. What I meant to ask was if it was someone from LL, but I got my answer now, hehe)

If a bug comes back in a new RC, it can be _slightly_ different so opening a new issue makes sense.

TY for the replies..

So who's JIRA Linden? Would Rob be a good one to (try to) get an 'official' ruling from?

That's a good question. I'm not sure there's any one linden who is responsible for JIRA per se, but Rob sounds like a good place to start. Here is the list of Lindens which are listed as "Administrators":

* Alexa Linden
* aric linden
* Bridie Linden
* Joe Linden
* Joshua Linden
* Prospero Linden
* Rob Linden
* Second Life Admin
* stephany linden
* Sue Linden
* Torley Linden
* WorkingOnIt Linden
* Yoz Linden

/me starts writing down names. If nothing else, I can expand my bear collection..