Some time ago, maybe around Patch 2.1, a change was introduced into the game surrounding chests and how parties handle who gets the loot.
The Old Way (before Patch 2.1 or so)
Initially, whoever opened the chest would get all of the contents, and the regular rolling mechanisms present in groups for corpse loots didn't apply.
This meant social structures had to be set up amongst players - agreements that when a chest was found in a group situation, everyone in the party would /roll and the winner of that roll would get the chest and its contents.
Of course, that also meant problems - a player could easily circumvent the social expectations and there really was very little recourse except to vow never to party with that player again if it looked as if it were intentional and not an honest low-level-player's mistake (that we all made or watched someone else make while in our first groups).
In some of the Outland dungeons, like Ramparts (the first one you'd do in Outland), a chest would spawn at the end of the instance after the boss was killed, and since the chest usually contained two blues, the screaming was intense about "ninjas" and how to deal with them. So, Blizzard made a change.
The New Way (current day)
Nowadays, chests obey the looting rules of your party, and therefore a standard party setup makes it so that contents of chests that are Green+ in quality pop up a standard rolling window like a regular corpse loot would.
But, there's still a question - potions, ores, bags and the likes are White in quality and therefore do not trigger the roll, and therefore whoever opened the chest DOES get those materials where others miss out.
So, has the social agreement changed at all?
What Agreement Do You Prefer?
I'd love to get feedback on this topic from everyone out there - and if you can, please let me know what level of characters you have as well, so I can keep that in mind.
Do you suggest people /roll when a chest is discovered in a dungeon?
If others suggest a roll-off on a chest in a dungeon, what is your response?
Any other comments?