Also, I really don't want to encourage our external clients from clicking this link to see user profiles.

I see your point about changing the way things work, and largely this is a reason for why we have not made a lot of changes in the UI for JIRA. However, this really does get in the way of improvements. Please note that on the View Issue page the Asignee and Reporter names always linked to the profile.

In JIRA 3.10 we made Version and Component names link to the relevant Browse Version and Browse Component pages:
http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+3.10+Release+Notes#JIRA3.10ReleaseNotes-browsing

We did give this change thought and looking at the whole picture we felt it is more consistent to make the Full Names of users go to the View Profile page, and make the actual numbers in statistics link to the Issue Navigator.

I do not wish to give an impression that we will continue to change the way links work in every version of JIRA, but sometimes we will need to change things.

May I ask what information on the View Profile page would you like to hide from your external users?

I think the easiest customisation that you would need to make would be to change the places where a Full Name is linked to the View Profile page to not link anywhere. This will ensure that your users get used to clicking the numbers in statistics to run a search. Please note that you will need to port this change every time you upgrade JIRA. Please let me know if this will work for you and we will come up with a list of changes to make.

We will, of course, keep listening to see if this causes problems for many other users, and if it does, we will revisit this issue.

Cheers,
Anton

I guess I disagree with your decision. As I said before, from the Browse project page, people are interested in ISSUES, not PROFILES. So now you have this huge link that goes somewhere nobody is interested in.

View profile is only used here by administrators and the individual users tweaking their own settings, it is of no use to anyone else. Similarly to Neal, we're not planning an upgrade until we see a big "oh, we could really use that" feature released. But if we're stuck with the assign-to link becoming effectively useless to us, our users will strongly resist any attempt to upgrade unless we can revert it with custom code.

I was just about to do an install of 3.10 for another demo in an attempt to sell Jira to another business unit, but having read this, I'll have to stick with 3.9

However, I can understand that some sites might want a quick link to user details, so I can understand the argument for making it more consistent. But (unless I've missed something in the release notes) there still aren't any real useful CRM fields associated with users, so I still don't really see that seeing a Jira profile is particularly useful.

So while it might seem like a logical move, and the version/component changes are a good change of UI, the user link is effectively a loss of functionality for us.

Atlassian - I am hoping that this issue gathers enough steam to have you change the behaviour back.

I know you are working hard on improving the product, but frankly I am regretting our decision to renew our license. There is no way I can release an upgrade with this change. I am forever going to have to keep hacking the source code. And from version to version that's not always easy.

JIRA's simple and elegant U.I. is the biggest reason it has been successful. Why mess with it?

After reviewing this change and the effect on all the links on this page, I think I would like to discuss cancelling our license renewal (which we just renewed this month). Unless this is fixed for all links, I may decide to stick with 3.6.5 forever. All the links (priority, status, assignee) are extremely hard to reach now because you have to finely get to the tiny issue count which is often just a single character.

Please have sales contact me for options.

I (and so would a number of users of our system that I have demonstrated this to) would definitely like to see this feature rolled back.

Yes, it is logical. But it is not useful, and it has replaced functionality that is.

Our users would find it useful if the user profiles contained contact details and contact history. Profiles do have links to filters of issues raised by the user, so it's not a killer for us, but
1) it's still a lot less useful than going straight to a users issue-raised list.
2) the current user profiles don't actually have any information my users care about.
3) there's no obvious replacement link to issues-raised-by-users

I also notice that it is inconsistent (although I think this is to do with the plugins in use) - try clicking a name in the comments, and then in the participants, on this very issue.

My feelings aren't as strong as others, but this is definitely a problem for us. Before we can use this version of Jira, we absolutely have to have one of:
1) a way to make Jira behave in the old way
2) an extra link near the user name that will provide the old functionality
<edit> I missed an alternative - if we could make the link from the numbers very obvious, that would work
3) user contact detail and history in the profile (can't "sell" this change unless this is in place)

We will review this issue and see if we can come up with a solution. Please give us some time to get to this.

However, I would really like to ensure that we are on the same page:

Rachel, you mentioned that:

The other headings (excluding reports) when clicked on give you a list of issues (for the criteria).

May I ask which headings your are referring to?

The heading of other statistics on the Browse Project page, i.e. stats by Status and Priority, do not link to anywhere, as we do not have Browse Status and Browse Priority pages. Only the numbers are linked.

Neal, thank you for the complement:

JIRA's simple and elegant U.I. is the biggest reason it has been successful. Why mess with it?

Personally I agree with it. However, there are a lot of users, inside and outside Atlassian, that do not see it this way.

If you would like to find out options about canceling the renewal please send an e-mail to sales@atlassian.com

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their feedback. We will take this on board.

Cheers,
Anton

While expanding the browse project page to include views for components and versions is an improvement, the change to the behaviour as mentioned in this issue is a change that some of us clearly see as "whatever the opposite of improvement is". So, we hope you keep the improvements and revert this page's behaviour back.

As a software developer I am well aware of having to deal with unexpected bugs being introduced in enhancement revisions. We all understand that, and Atlassian always makes fixing those a priority. But in this case, it looks like it was an intentional change and that's why I was so upset.

Please note that on the View Issue page the Assignee and Reporter names always linked to the profile.

True, but in that case you are looking at a single issue, so what other context would such links have?

Regarding the license renewal, the reason I raised this is because management asked me what benefits there were in keeping our support contract, and aside from hoping that JRA-1330 got addressed, there was really no functionality we needed (project roles helps admins (me) only, and we don't use time tracking or subtasks) since 3.6.5. Obviously, I would not be able to consider rolling out an upgrade with this change, as I would get blasted by the PM's. I sold JIRA based on its ability to allow PM's to manage projects easily, and my training notes say "Anywhere you see text or a description, it is usually also a link that takes you where you want it to".

And, of course, you know Nic Brough and I are both big supporters of your product and always recommend it. I'm sure we've both been directly or indirectly related to many successful sales. When we tell you there's a problem ...

We will change the links in places where statistics are displayed to go the Issue Navigator. This will also cover the fix for JRA-13158.

Thanks to everyone who has taken their time to provide their feedback!

Cheers,
Anton