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This question.

As I understand it, it's just a fun question, quite like the apt-get-from-2020 one. I really can't understand why we accept and upvote one, but not the other. Sure it should be a community wiki and no one should gain reputation, but all jokes should be allowed or no one.

Maybe it's just that you can only make jokes on Fridays ;).

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  • 2
    I assumed that posting that question would be fine since I saw the apt-get-from 2020 "question". After realizing that subjective questions should not get posted, I would have voted to close both mine and the other one (if I had enough rep). I will post this on the forums soon. I don't agree that we can't post subjective items, but I will respect it in the future.
    – user415
    Sep 30, 2010 at 0:25
  • 1
    This has been moved to the forums: ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9905927
    – user415
    Sep 30, 2010 at 0:41

4 Answers 4

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I don't think those are really good questions, they're probably more appropriate on the Ubuntu forums. (I personally downvoted them both)

The FAQ currently says: "This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered!"

Maybe we should change that to: "This is not a discussion board, this is a place for questions that can be answered! We encourage discussion to happen on the existing Ubuntu Forums."

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The question was closed because it was in the opinion of the content being a "baiting-like" nature. Ultimately the Fun-Friday threads on StackOverflow were started because there really is no "Discussion Board" for StackOverflow. However, as Jorge Castro points out in the original Fun-thread-friday post - we do have a discussion board, the Ubuntu Forums.

The question - in question - is much better suited for a discussion board - because each post will most likely stir a torrent of comments of people discussing about each of the "strangest" and "most controversial" things, in addition the 2020 question just barely falls in the scope of this site ( a more straight forward "fun" question - with short, decisive answers - and on topic with this site ).

In the end - the goal and aims of this site should be to become THE authoritative place for Questions and Answers about Ubuntu. I know questions like this, and the 2020 question, help build the community in being able to cut-loose. Though with the addition of the Chat Room I imagine that would be the best place to loosely discuss things of this nature.

However, do not feel defeated - Enough people of this community thought it should be closed, that's not to say that even more people could want it opened. You - and most everyone else of this community - has the power to vote to reopen the topic. As it stands if it's reopened then the Community has helped to further define the scope of questions for this site. It's within your power - and the power of the community - to do that.

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    Marco, I agree with Jorge. This is no place for out-of-topic humour. So I'd like to vote to close apt-get-from-2040 instead of reopening this one. I see that you locked it. Is it the same as closing?. Sep 29, 2010 at 8:24
  • @Javier It's similar to locking - only no one can vote to reopen it. Sep 29, 2010 at 14:55
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Now I have revisited the question, I can see it was not meant to be inflammatory but when I first saw it I thought it would be a prompt for answers to get mini flame wars in the comments.

Perhaps I was too hasty in voting to close it on just those grounds but I felt it was too subjective in any case.

Looking at the thread linked to on Ubuntu Forums it soon slips into my OS is better than... and other ramblings. It would be nice if this site could rise above that level of discussion.

The apt-get-from-2020 was a bit more thought provoking but produced little value to the site in terms of answers. In fact I deleted my "answer" on the post because it was non constructive.

I guess if it were a decision to keep "fun" topics or not, I would have to say not to have them.

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  • You can voice you opinion about the Fun-thread-friday. I agree that both of these topics really don't contribute back to being authoritative Q/A Sep 29, 2010 at 17:01
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Frankly, community wiki is the reason here.
I can tell you from semi-personal experience (as in: seeing it happen to other questions) that the community is much more likely to accept and upvote a discussion if it's both fun AND community wiki.

On the other hand, if a discussion-oriented question is not immediately community wiki OR if it's controversial and leaves room for flame wars, it's very likely to get locked.

In the end this is a community-driven site, and thus is susceptible to what the community thinks the site should be like (and, I believe, that is the intention). As it would in any other environment, that will lead to diverging behaviors sometimes. The best way to settle these discrepancies is to post a question in meta, just like you did here.

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  • On a side note, I actually agree with this behavior. I think it's fine to have a couple of fun questions that have room for discussions, as long as there's no room for flame wars and as long as no one is getting reputation for it. I kept this out of my answer, in order to stay in topic.
    – Malabarba
    Oct 4, 2010 at 15:06

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