Show all comments by default

[George G]

Hi,
We require all comments to be visible by default on all issues. Currently it only shows the last 5 comments, the rest are hidden and must be expanded manually.
Our issues have ongoing discussions and as a result clients are missing comments and it is causing problems.
This would be fine if used for its intended purpose of leaving internal comments, but when paired with JSM and used in a help desk context it is severely falling short. Is it possible to change this default behaviour?
Thank you

[Brad Simpson]

There should at least be a user preference for "Always show all comments." We are also having issues with team members and clients missing older comments because they don't notice the "view older comments" button.

[Anthony]

This blog tells you how - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management-articles/Automatically-send-all-the-issue-public-comments-by-email/ba-p/2720901.

I am using the below automation rule:

Trigger: When Comment is created

Then: Send Email to Reporter

Content:

{{#issue.comments.reverse}}
{{^internal}}
From: {{author.displayName}} Sent: {{created}}
{{body}}
<br>
---
<br>
{{/internal}}
{{/issue.comments.reverse}}

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @George G

The public comments are available for customers and can be seen in the portal request. May an extra expand click be necessary? Yes. A lengthy thread of dozens of comments doesn't seem particularly useful either. Mostly, it's the last comments that indicate the next step, feedback or action to be taken.

In case of ongoing discussions back and forth you may ask yourself if the issue/request is the best channel going forward. Maybe a video call with the customer to sort out any questions may be the better option.

PS: I like your avatar, D-FENS!

[Harri]

Hi Dave, I second George's request. Hiding information is a bad default, esp for a bug tracker. The old on-premises Jira was better in this respect.

It should be easy to improve without breaking Jira. You could improve visibility of the button saying "View 37 remaining older comments" by using more eye-catching colors, you could make it look less like a separator and more like a button, you could allow the user to increase the number of comments shown by default in his preferences, etc. 

Just a suggestion, of course. Regards
Harri