18

I've asked a xfce specific question - months ago. Today I got an answer.
But I don't use xfce anymore.

What should I do now?

Well are there any information I should add to this question?

4 Answers 4

13

I've looked over your question (I'm guessing it's this one).

In general, if you are experiencing a problem and you suddenly stop having it or you switch to something else and can't test answers anymore, we usually close the question as "not reproducible" to keep the site cleaner.

However:

Yours isn't a problem as much as it is a "can I do this", so it doesn't really matter if you can't test the answer anymore. In this case it looks like the answer is well written and thought out. I'd upvote it, but not accept it (which is totally ok). There is no need to close the question in this case.

2
  • Yep, that is the correct question. And since mateo unfortunately already commented this in the question it isn't hard to get it.. ;) Anyway I feel a bit bad to not accept the answer since it's - as you already mentioned - a pretty good answer. But I can't verify that it works or it is correct. I don't think here will come a better solution to my (meta-)question but I'll let this question open for some time
    – Lucas
    May 3, 2014 at 21:56
  • No problem, i think others can find it useful.
    – TuKsn
    May 3, 2014 at 23:02
7

The question is not Xubuntu-specific. It is thunar-specific and there is no reason you can't simply install thunar on a non-Xfce system. All you need to do to confirm whether the answer works is sudo apt-get install thunar.

Once thunar is installed, test the answer and accept or not as appropriate. I just tested this on my LMDE Cinnamon and it works as advertised, you can feel free to accept it.

6
  • Well this is actually not correct. For example: Thunar + Mint works fine for me with the 'mouseover thing'. It is / was a xfce specific problem for me at this time
    – Lucas
    May 5, 2014 at 9:16
  • @Lucas I have no idea what "the mouse over thing" is but following the steps in the answer you got let me use Alt+T to open a terminal at the current location in thunar. My point is that i) you can accept cause it works ii) you can install xfce on any Linux, no need for Xubuntu specifically and iii) you can test without installing xfce, all you need is thunar.
    – terdon
    May 5, 2014 at 9:18
  • 1
    a) I can't (ihmo) / won't accept because you say it works (no offence here) b) As is said it was an xfce specific problem for me c) For me your answer is "install xfce + thuner + test it" - thanks for your answer
    – Lucas
    May 5, 2014 at 9:30
  • @Lucas no offense taken! I wouldn't accept because some random guy on the internet told me either :). You don't need to install xfce though, just thunar. And it is trivial to test once you've installed. Anyway, as Seth told you, you are under no obligation to accept but if you want to, you can just apt-get install thunar and test, it only takes about 5 minutes.
    – terdon
    May 5, 2014 at 9:33
  • 1
    @Lucas Did you see terdon's reputation? If you think the answer might be correct and he confirms it, I see no reason you cannot simply accept it. But that is what I would do. You are free to choose of course.
    – don.joey
    May 6, 2014 at 7:28
  • @don.joey fair point :)
    – Lucas
    May 6, 2014 at 9:11
5

When it comes to how you award the "chosen answer" and/or whether to upvote an answer, the general principle that I like to go by is that it's your decision to do it however you like, using whatever reasons you like as long as they are reasonable.

As long as you are not doing something to disrupt the site such as vote manipulation or rigging, how you choose to award upvotes or chosen answers is up to you.

There are a few different aspects to this question:

  • If someone responds to your question after you no longer require an answer, do you have any obligation to try and verify their answer?

    No. You don't have to do any checking or verifying of people's answers at any time or for any reason. There is never an obligation that you do this. If you do find someone's answer helpful, then it is courteous to award them as "chosen answer", and this will also improve your "accepted answers" score. And it can be helpful to others to upvote or downvote an answer at any time. But there is no obligation to do so.

  • If you don't know if an answer is right or wrong, what do you do?

    If you do not have the means to know if an answer is right or wrong, there is no need to do anything, whether it's an answer to your own question or soneone else's.

    Theoretically, it is best if you abstain from either upvoting or downvoting, to better ensure that those who do vote on an answer are more likely to be people who know more about the subject at hand.

  • If I asked a question but then realised I don't need the answer anymore because I don't use that software anymore, should I ask for the question to be closed/removed?

    In general no. The question may still be relevant to other people who do use that software. The only valid reasons for closing/removing a question is if there was a problem with the question in the first place, such as being unclear or not relevant to Ubuntu. A question doesn't cease to be relevant to the site just because it's no longer relevant to the person who asked it.

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  • I like this answer, much upvote.. When there will be no better answer until tomorrow I'll accept this I guess ;)
    – Lucas
    May 7, 2014 at 7:35
0

Personally, I would do this, accept the answer, and vote it up, if there are many answers, I'll accept the one that sound the best to me and vote up all of them, unless I see very bad answers.

I do that just to close the topic and to thank those who tried to help, I'd include a note in the question, telling future users that I didn't test it, but I left the question there for reference, in case they had the same problem.

I'd comment on the answers, telling those who helped me, that I no longer use the software and therefore I didn't test their solutions.

1
  • Well.. I see your point - but I can't say that it helped me since I can't test it ;)
    – Lucas
    May 9, 2014 at 10:21

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