This bug has been split off from bug 540, see my 2001-02-19 23:38 comments there, especially the paragraph starting with "Other possibilities that may be worth thinking about, especially useful for long bugs:", part 2: A simple, but less beautiful hack, to skip obsolete comments in long bugs: Have a link at the beginning pointing to the "most recent detailed summary comment". By default, it points to the original bug description (and in this case it need not show up in the bug view at all), but anyone with editbugs priviledges can change it to point to an arbitrary comment. This way one could always jump to the important comments quickly. Additionally or alternatively, there could be such a "pointer to a comment" that causes all previous comments to be hidden from the default bug view and only be displayed on demand (a "show all comments" link, or a "show previous comments"). Here is a visualization of the first kind of pointer: <a href=#29>Jump to most recent detailed summary comment</a> | Comment 1 | Comment 2 | Comment 3 | ... | Comment 28 --> Comment 29 Comment 30 Comment 31 Here is a visualization of the second kind of pointer: <a href=#1><b>28 older comments hidden. Click here to make them visible.</b></a> Comment 29 Comment 30 Comment 31 One example where this would be useful is bug 42525. There the pointer target would be the Additional Comments From Henri Sivonen 2000-11-01 13:51.

An alternative is bug 99240 "Add an editable 'long summary' field (useful for long bugs)".

Having just read some of the top 5 "most duped" bugs - including one that had been decided at about comment #300 should be split into multiple (approx 5) separate platform-specific bugs - I saw occasional comments along the lines of: ################################# !!!!!!!!!!![ ALERT ]!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO NOT ADD MORE COMMENTS TO THIS BUG THAT DO ANY OF THE FOLLOWING: ... INSTEAD, LOOK FOR THE PLATFORM-SPECIFIC VERSION OF YOUR BUG Hope this gets everyone's attention sufficiently! :) !!!!!!!!!!![ ALERT ]!!!!!!!!!!!!! ################################# IMNSHO, this is definitely a sign of users having to muck about with the system because its failing (at a design level) to support some fundamental functionality. I would hazard that in the cited case, the bugzilla-user/developer's need was to stem the flow of comments (several hundred) by putting a prominent warning at the head of the comments list (and I bet they'd have loved to put it in red or similar, to help gain attention :). Such a prominent BEFORE ANY COMMENTS special comment would have worked wonders for people (like me) reading it from cold - I could have seen the most important current comment ("[this bug is being split into platform-dependent ones]") and saved a lot of time... I think that THIS bug could solve such problems, potentially.

I would also add the possbility to hide new bugs individually too. I mean that some users would have the permission to hide unconstructive comments like "I want this bug solved". Is that linked to the issue here or is it a new one to be created? Or is there an existing one that I missed?

I guess I didn't read the other 99 comments in bug 540 as I thought when I wrote bug 540 comment 100: I think there are 2 issues here. As the bug gets more comments, people want a place to understand the current plans for the bug, like an extended summary. 1. The first comment aka "Description" is viewed by most users as exactly that, not "comment 0". 2. Comment lists can get long and cumbersome, especially if plagued with minor edits and corrections. I suggest, in addition to allowing users to reply to a comment, the author of a comment (commenter) should also be able to "supersede" their comment. Superseded comments would remain in the comment list as-is (default collapsed to reduce space use), and with a link to the superseding comment. As a special case, a subset of users (I suggest only the Author and Assignee, as an extension only if they have permission) could mark the description as superseded, which would put a copy of the description superseding comment in the "description" location, with a "supersedes" link to "comment 0" which would be the original description (default collapsed). Multiple supersedes would be handled by providing the transient set of links - ie ------- Comment #99 <details> (+) [reply] ------- superseded by comment 102 superseded by comment 105 and ------- Comment #105 <details> (+) [reply] ------- supersedes comment 102 supersedes comment 99 In order to support this 1 additional column would be required, either supersedes or superseded, depending on ease of implementation of link direction. ------------------ That would seem to be a more general way of addressing the desire to replace the description, and the most recent description (superseder of the comment 0 lineage ) could be put first in the description spot.