Modifying a bug's description

[markus korn]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:07 PM, Brian Murray <brian at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> Bug descriptions are something that do not get modified very often,
> approximately 240 times this month, but are a great way to make bug
> reports more useful.  They can also save everyone the pain of having to
> read through every bug comment to extract important information.
>
> I put some thought into a few items[0] that would be beneficial to have
> in the bug description.  This includes a 'test case' section which is
> currently being used for the Stable Release Update verification process
> with great success.  What other information could we be adding to the
> bug description to make it more useful?
>
> [0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Description
>
> --
> Brian Murray                                                 @ubuntu.com

I understand why it is useful to modify the description of a
bugreport: because it is the only possibility launchpad provides us to
show important facts to users/developers/triagers in the very first
place.

But my opinion here is: Nobody should ever change the description of a
bugreport!
The reporter indicates with his name that he wrote the description, so
he is kind of responsible  for facts mentioned in the description. I
think that's the reason why no one can change comments, because each
comment reflects the opinion of its author.

Instead of this we should ask the launchpad-devs to implement
something like a whitebox section for each bugreport, or a different
solution. I understand that such a solution would take some time. In
the meantime, part of the 'changing descriptions'-policy should always
be a a clear indication like "<user xxx>: added testcase".

Markus