10 June 2020, 3:53

Hi 

We've come across the following behaviour and we're trying to work out if this 'expected' or a 'bug'.  I'm hoping someone can clarify.

• Student submits a collection for review to a Mahara group.
• Instructor posts a comment.
• An edit icon (pencil) is visible for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes the edit icon disappears.
• No other icons / options appear against that comment (i.e. there's no option to delete the comment)
• When the collection is released back to the student the option to delete the comment (trash bin icon) is visible.

Is this expected behaviour?  

From the manual we were expecting to see a delete option for the author of the comment (i.e. the instructor).

Thanks for any/all help.

Yvonne

15 June 2020, 10:26

Hi Yvonne,

Thanks for reporting this issue, I've made a bug report for this and you can follow the progress here

Cecilia

23 June 2020, 0:04

Hi Cecilia

Interestingly in the bug report you've focussed on an issue that was not the intention of my email - that page owners can delete 'private' comments made by a reviewer of their page.

The issue we had was that the person making the 'private' comment couldn't delete their own comment (or edit it after 10 minutes).  So if a tutor makes a comment and then later wants to revise/remove it they can't - specifically if they've made an error.

I've just noticed that if I make a comment public (as the reviewer) I do see an option to delete the post.  However, this doesn't persist and eventually disappears.

Also, how long does it take for bugs to be resolved?

Thanks

Yvonne

29 June 2020, 14:41

Hi Yvonne,

Thanks for replying, I understand what you mean now. In the way Mahara works, the comments can't be deleted while the view/collection is in submitted status. When the comment is created, you can see the delete form next to it because it's still on the 10 minute edit time window. But after that, as the view/collection is submitted no one should be able to delete a comment.

In case you are seeing this behaviour after an upgrade, it could be because this change was introduced in Mahara 18.10 version, you can see the details here

I hope this helps,

Cecilia

30 June 2020, 19:40

Hi Cecilia

This is the bit I don't understand - 'as the view/collection is submitted no one should be able to delete a comment.'  

The tutor who has made the comments should be able to delete a comment before the page/collection is 'released' back to the student.  Sometimes mistakes can be made and a tutor may want to start again so a delete button (whilst commenting on a page/collections which has been submitted for review) is essential.

Apart from wanting to delete mistakes, there could be other reasons why a tutor may want to delete their comments. For example, consider this scenario.  A collection with 12 pages is submitted for review.  The tutor makes a comment on page 1.  When the tutor comes to page 6 they discover that the issue commented on, in page 1, has been addressed. Therefore the tutor wants to return to page 1 and delete their comment, as it is no longer relevant.  

This could probably be fixed by removing the 10 minute edit window and just allowing comments to be edited by the author (while the page/collection is in review), but in any case can a delete button be added to comments?  

Yvonne

29 November 2020, 11:16

Hi Evonne,

The 10-minute window is a 'safety net' to fix small issues. After the 10 minutes are up, the comment will be sent to a student and thus even if you were to delete it, they'd see it.

I think a better option would be two possibilities:

• Bulk release of feedback (or something along those lines)
• Draft status for a comment so you can save it as draft and then eventually publish, similarly to what we have for peer assessment.

If you are interested in having one or both of these features developed, please send me a message.

Thank you

Kristina