3013: Deleting a file attachment does not delete comments about it from issue summary table

ilackno*******@gmai***** (Google Code) (Is this you? Claim this profile.)
June 20, 2013 
What version are you running?
1.7.7.1 

What's the URL of the page containing the problem?
It occurs also on the 1.8 alpha 0 demo page.  Refer to this review: http://demo.reviewboard.org/r/11702/

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Add a file
2. Publish comments on the file. You'll see it show up on the issue summary
3. Now delete the file
4. You'll STILL see the comment from step 2 as "Open" in the issue summary table.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I think keeping the comment history in the Reviews section is very valuable, but in terms of the Issue Summary Table, I expect to either see 1.) the comment doesn't show up in the issue summary table at all or 2.) the status of that comment should either be "Dropped" or "Deleted" (though this does require a new status)


What operating system are you using? What browser?
Mac OSX Lion. Chrome Version 27.0.1453.110

Please provide any additional information below.
david
#1 david 
This is expected behavior. People often remove file attachments in favor of a new version of the same file, but we don't want to erase all discussion that happened before. Just close the issue if it no longer applies.
  • +NotABug
#2 ilackno*******@gmai***** (Google Code) (Is this you? Claim this profile.) 
Like I mentioned earlier, I think it is valuable to keep all discussions in the review updates below (I'm not suggesting that), but I don't think the comment should be listed as an "Open" Issue on the Issue Summary Table when in fact the file attachment no longer exists.
chipx86
#3 chipx86 
I can see an argument for that, but there's another argument that I believe requires that we keep behavior as-is.

Say I upload a screenshot, and people make comments on it. I may, as part of a subsequent update, replace that screenshot with a newer version, without addressing their concerns. For example, maybe I tweaked the look of something, but I didn't fix a typo they found.

By altering this behavior to erase those issues from the removed screenshot, I lose very valuable feedback that may still be very relevant. I don't want to do that. Just because a file attachment (or diff) was replaced, doesn't mean the previous feedback has been addressed.

What *should* be done is that the owner of the review request should close the issues once they are fixed. Reviews should *never* disappear. It's up to the owner to respond to any open issues, and having the system auto-close them is asking for trouble.
#4 ilackno*******@gmai***** (Google Code) (Is this you? Claim this profile.) 
The submitter is still allowed to mark the comment as "Fixed" or "Dropped". That makes sense.