Improve issue management interface

What's your idea?

Move issue management tasks from comments to the issue summary and (optionally) make them editable in-line. Add a "last-update" widget to the issue metadata area that contains "revision-like" information about who/what/when/why the metadata was changed.

Currently, in order for a user to change the status of an issue, add a tag, assign to another user, etc... they must leave a comment on the issue and make sure they select the appropriate setting before they hit submit. This isn't exactly intuitive - even for experienced users. It's easy to forget to change a setting when leaving a comment and this generates a lot of cruft in the discussion. A common example is when a user uploads a new patch, they often forget to set the status of the issue to "Needs review" and must leave an additional comment in order for the patch to be queued for testing.

Further, it can also be difficult to identify the exact comment in which a meta-property was changed. For example, if someone adds a tag or upgrades a priority in the midst of an active discussion, that persons comment - which may contain the reasoning for the change - might not get the visibility it deserves.

What are the benefits?

Issues will be easier to edit and maintain.
Easier to see who/what/when regarding changes to issue metadata.
Less cruft ("meta"-posts) in the discussion, which should make issues shorter and more readable.

What are the risks?

Easier to edit might mean easier for users to make unintentional changes.

How can we measure the impact of this idea? (metrics)

Length and readability of issue discussions and the number of users actively updating issue metadata.

Who directly benefits from / will use this improvement? (target audiences)

New and active participants in the Drupal.org issue queue system.

Are additional resources available for discovery/implementation? (volunteer effort, financial backing, etc.)

To be determined...