Adding a Watcher from a mention in a comment

Question

Hi,

If I understand how Jira works correctly, when you mention a user in a comment, it automatically adds them as a watcher.  This is great as I can then build a dashboard high lighting issues that need attention from a particular user(s).

However, after the user actions the comment, and removes themselves from being a watcher, so it's no longer on their to do list so to speak, if they are mentioned in a comment again, they are not readded as a watcher.

Has anyone come across a way around this, perhaps using automation to add all mentions from the last comment as watchers?

Thanks,
Jon C

Filipi Lima · Answer

Hi, Jonathan,

It seems you're trying to keep users as Watchers even after they have removed themselves from the list.

While it might be possible on Cloud using the match() to find mentions in the new comment and use this smart value on the Manage Watcher action of the automation, you might want to consider the impact this will have on your users.

If they are all removing themselves as watchers they might get frustrated if you keep adding them. If you still need these users to be somehow listed in the ticket, consider having a new custom field or even adding them as Request Participants.

* This would be an alternative to having a rule processing and running a regex on every single comment from your instance.

Bill Sheboy · Answer

Hi @Jonathan Cunliffe

My understanding is that mentions only email the user and do not add them as Watchers.

It would be possible to write a rule, triggered on comments, which finds any mentioned users' accountId values and then adds them as Watchers.  I recall several posts on doing that here in the community.

Kind regards,
Bill