Owen O'Malley wrote:
Doug decided he didn't like the majority of people editing their comments on jira and disabled edits.
I did propose that we disable comment editing. There was some discussion, but no one vetoed the proposal, so I implemented it.
The rationale is that comment edits as implemented by Jira make it hard to follow an issue. If you're following an issue by email, and after you read a 3-paragraph comment, it's then edited, you are re-sent the entire edited comment, not a diff, and must attempt to figure out what's changed: whether it's just a spelling correction or whether it's a more substantial change. Things are no better in the web interface, since, if one has already read the comment and then it's edited, one must re-read the entire message to determine what's changed. With many people following each issue, edits incur a cost on the community. Following Hadoop Jira issues already consumes a lot of our collective time, and edits increase this.
Rather folks can consider Jira comments like email and IRC messages. One should review before one posts, and, if one makes a mistake, one should amend it with a follow-up posting. This makes it easier for folks to follow issues either via email and via the web interface.
That said, if most folks now find this objectionable, we can hold a vote to consider changing it.
Doug
