How a report travels — the full account
Every state a report can be in, who may move it, and how it can end. The short version is here.
The three doors in
A report is the same kind of record whichever door it came through; the
door is remembered as its source. The feedback form and the feedback
button record feedback; the report-an-error page records
error; the "was this helpful?" control inside the help panel
records help.
The states, and what you are told
| Internally | What the member reads |
|---|---|
| new | Received |
| triaged, routed, escalated | Being looked at |
| declined | Being looked at |
| in progress | Being worked on |
| fixed, poster invited | Ready for you to check |
| resolved, closed | Done |
| follow up | Follow-up opened |
Declined still reads as "being looked at" on purpose: a coder's "no" is not yet an answer to the member, because someone still owes them a disposition. The member is told the outcome when a steward decides it, not when the automated helper stands down.
Who may do what
The permissions are separate on purpose — holding one does not imply another. A shepherd can ask for a fix to be drafted but sees a queue with the reporter's identity withheld. A reviewer sees the full queue. Only the operator approves what goes live, and the approval screen deliberately has no merge button on it.
A shepherd works inside two bounds: at most three drafts in flight at once, and at most two attempts per report. That second count is kept on the code forge rather than on this site, because this demo site is rebuilt nightly and a limit that the rebuild resets is not a limit.
When automation may be used at all
Anything classed as doctrine or member-interior content is never handed to the automated helper — it is routed to the Theology guild. Anything the classifier flags as needing a person goes to a person, and it records why. Only what passes both checks can be drafted, and the draft is still reviewed by a human before anything merges.
How it can end
- Fixed and confirmed — the fix landed and you said "Yes, sorted". The strongest ending, because the person who reported it said so.
- Fixed, not confirmed — the fix landed; nobody has confirmed it yet.
- Reopened — you said "Not quite", which opens a new linked report carrying your note.
- Closed without a change — with a written reply saying why, and an email that says exactly that rather than "we fixed it".
- Resolved in place — answered, acknowledged, or a duplicate.
- Handed to a person — stays open until someone acts.
There is deliberately no "rejected" ending. The nearest thing is "closed with a reply", and it requires a person to write the reply.
Where to watch it
My feedback — your own reports. The suggestion board — public ideas. The pipeline — where everything stands.
The pipeline page shows more or less depending on what your account is trusted with, and some reports are deliberately withheld because a person is handling them: you are told they exist, not what they say.
What the pipeline will not claim
Merge and build facts arrive here on an hourly copy from the machine that builds the code. The page names when it last heard from that machine. If that copy is missing or stale it says CANNOT VERIFY rather than showing yesterday's answer as today's, and a report whose outcome is not in the current copy reads "filed — outcome not in the current snapshot", never "not yet filed".