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While closing this question , I've noticed a few peculiar things:

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  • Problem #1: not all software for Ubuntu is hosted on Launchpad, so can we change the text to something like ". . . reported on Launchpad or other software hosting platform that developers of your package use" . The OP can try to argue that their software is not hosted on Launchpad, thus they can't report it, and therefore close reason isn't valid. I know - that's far fetched, but I'm trying to think one step ahead here. Oli in his answer to a related question also mentions: "... a message that sends everybody to Launchpad isn't appropriate for most projects. That's like telling somebody to run ubuntu-bug firefox to submit a feature request. You'd do better to tell them to visit the Firefox support forums (which seems to work as a SE clone)." So, we don't want to list every single site that provides support for software, but at least we can change it to general term instead of one specific site that excludes all others.

  • Problem #2: feature requests are missing. This was asked before but didn't receive much attention and support. As Takkat said these "...do occur but they are not really many." Bug reports are not very common either, yet we have a specific close reason for them. In addition, I think sending people to the respective software hosting platform that developers use is far better than having an "Closed as off-topic" question here. At least some of the OPs will go to the developer sites and ask for those features, so win-win for both developers and users ( and tangentially - us )

Takkat also mentions:

"By excluding all feature requests too prominently there may be a risk for a misunderstanding what exactly was meant by a "feature request""

I think it's a pretty clear case when someone comes here and says "Dear developers, please do this and this". When someone asks "Can this be done?" that's another animal.

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    Close reasons have a very short character limit, that is probably the reason it is so limited. I highly doubt there is enough space left to add anything else.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 13:05
  • @Seth it's not even possible to reword it ?
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 13:36
  • @Serg I agree there may be a risk of problems with this, but if you are suggesting we reword it, perhaps you have a suggestion for what it should say? Close reasons are very short on character limits, so I'm not sure we can truly encompass all 'bugs' in a short message.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 13:39
  • @ThomasWard I'll add something into an edit of my question once I am on desktop. I'm on mobile right now
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 13:45

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Back before July 2015, we had a different close reason for bugs:

Bug reports should be submitted via Launchpad so that the developers are made aware of them.

Honestly, I think something like this would be a better version of the current close reason for bug reports, unreleased software, and feature requests. Perhaps something like:

Bug reports, feature requests, and questions about unreleased software are off-topic on AskUbuntu. To report a bug or request a feature, contact the developers.

Ideally, the link present in that post would point to a more canonical answer on how to report a bug/request a feature for both Launchpad and non-Launchpad projects. However, that can come whenever needed

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