Are "New Features" such as Whiteboards automatically enabled after a certain amount of time?

Question

We have noticed that Whiteboards and Databases have both been enabled automatically over the last week and no one manually selected the enable button.

I cannot find any documentation from Atlassian that says new features will automatically turn on if you do not enable them by a certain amount of days.

This is greatly alarming to our organisation, as there are very specific reasons as to why we have not enabled them so far.

Hans Polder_7ci2ta · Answer

@Darryn ,

I understand your frustration and arguments for not enabling all these features - although I'm afraid there isn't really much you can do here. The only product where you'll have more power yourself is Jira Data Center, but that lacks other features/functionality that you might have come to rely on in Jira Cloud :)

More information about the release methodology: https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/keep-up-with-atlassian-changes-to-products/

More about release tracks (including 'bundled'): https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/manage-product-release-tracks/

Darryn_enaaej · Answer

Hi @Hans Polder. Unfortunately the thing is: we didn't enable them to start with - there was an enable button, which our org-level Audit Log shows no one used to enable them, yet they are enabled now.

The concerns we have on these features are based on internal process and methodology - we do not enable anything until we understand exactly how and what the feature will do with our organisational IP.

We also choose not to enable features where the use case for the feature is already serviced by another product or platform already in use within the organisation.

Does the "bundled" release track method for new features automatically enable things like Whiteboard and Databases?

If so, could I please ask if you can point me to the page or document where Atlassian specifically outline this.

Hans Polder_7ci2ta · Answer

@Darryn ,

Welcome to the community!

As Atlassian sees these functionalities are core components of Confluence, you won't be able to turn these off manually:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-78127

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76287

I imagine this has been decided because otherwise you'll always have to keep in mind that 'not all users have X or Y functionality', which always make new feature implementation much more complex.

Can you share some of your concerns about having these enabled?