Hide/filter auto-generated commit history from Discussion of a Merge Request
Problem to solve
As mentioned in the gitter: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/support-forum/issues?scope=all&utf8=%E2%9C%93&state=opened&search=Discussion
Before merging a merge request, it would be convenient to see only human conversations in the Discussion section. The reason is because sometimes there can be a lot of commit messages polluting the history. If one wanted to see these commits, they could always click on the "Commits" section (the only caveat being if someone rebase or reset the branch commits would be lost).
So perhaps a simple toggle for "hide commit messages from Discussion" would be suitable. Would be nice for this option to persist too or be set by default when opening the merge request just like "Squash commits" option is offered.
Intended users
Developers and lead developers whom review code before merging will benefit by having a clear view of all human requirements discussed in the Discussion section without having to click the "move to next Discussion" button or sift through many many autogenerated commit messages:
Further details
I personally manage a team of 3 very junior engineers. We have dozens upon dozens of Discussions with crucial requirements and feedback that is often missed once a flood of commits fill the Discussion section of a merge request.
The alternative? Well, I suppose I could wag my finger at developers pushing 50+ commits that could be rebased or reset, but at the same time committing often on a feature branch is a good thing too, so a simple filter in the Discussion section of a merge request would balance convenience with version history rigor.
Proposal
Add a boolean toggle, ideally a persisted state set when first creating a merge request, that when activated hides all commit messages from the Discussion section of a merge request.
Alternative: at least a button in the Discussion section of a merge request that when pressed temporarily hides all commit messages.
Permissions and Security
Anyone and everyone viewing a merge request should have this ability.
Documentation
This button/widget should be self-explanatory - so no documentation probably necessary.
Testing
Very little risk, as this feature should only filter - not modify - discussion history data.
What does success look like, and how can we measure that?
I can just view clean, human, comments and Discussions without the noise of who committed what (that guy: but what if an AI bot has been programmed to post comments/Discussions using the gitlab api then you'd still have automated messaging - that's okay and quite a rare exception I think!)
What is the type of buyer?
kindly make this a community edition feature please :)