Bugs cannot be updated if they are archived?

[Drew Adams]

I don't know what "archiving" a bug amounts to - does it mean that the bug is
closed?

I filed a bug, #119, which was (apparently) archived for some reason, even
though the bug was never fixed. The bug is still a problem.

IIUC, Jason at one point marked this bug as fixed or soon-to-be-fixed or
something similar, expecting that the future merge of the font backend would fix
it. But the merge did not fix the bug. I replied, stating that the bug was still
not fixed. I don't know whether Jason's premature and partial fix notification
somehow caused the subsequent archiving and bug-tracker snafu.

I sent followup mail for bug #119, using "bug #119" in the subject line, as
usual. So did Jason. None of that mail changed the bug status or unarchived it.
The bug still does not show up among the "Outstanding" bugs.

I thought that it had disappeared entirely, and sent a mail to that effect a
month ago. Stephan Berman replied to me, saying that it shows up among the
"archived and unarchived reports", which it does. 

It was (and is) not clear to me what that means. Is it archived or unarchived?
What does archiving (or unarchiving) mean? The heading that it appears under on
that "archived and unarchived reports" page is "Resolved bugs - Normal bugs".
What does "resolved" mean? This is that page:
http://emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?ordering=normal;archive=
both;package=emacs;repeatmerged=1

I don't know if this behavior represents a problem with the bug tracker or not.
Glenn suggested that it does, and from the little I understand, that makes sense
to me too. I replied to a message that said that the bug had been fixed, by
stating that it was still not fixed. But that reply apparently never affected
the bug status. Subsequent mails also had no effect. I opened a new bug today,
pointing to #119, and that's what drew Glenn's attention.

Whatever the correct diagnosis of the tracker status and problems might be, bug
#119 has not been fixed, and it does not appear among the Outstanding bugs.