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We're missing a few important entries from the current closing process so I'm rewriting some of the current reasons. I've just asked the other mods to read over them but thought a bit of public input couldn't hurt either!

Most of these are based on what we've done in the past and on existing meta subjects about this.

  • Your question is not about Ubuntu. Questions about other Linux distributions can be asked on Unix & Linux, those about Windows on Super User, those about Apple products on Ask Different and generic programming questions on Stack Overflow.

  • You have run into a problem that needs to be reported to developers on Launchpad, Ubuntu's bug tracker. Bugs can't be fixed unless developers know about them and that will only happen if they are posted in the right place. The same is true for problems with the development version of Ubuntu.

  • Your question is about an end of life Ubuntu release. These are no longer supported and are therefore off-topic here. To upgrade, see: How to install software or upgrade from old unsupported release?

  • You have described a problem that can't be reproduced that seemingly went away on its own or was only relevant to a very specific period of time. It's off-topic as it's unlikely to help future readers.

Of course there are four there and I'm still waiting to hear back to see if we can do that but let me know if you think any of these need improving and how you would do it. There is a character limit (and the first pretty close) so remember we can't fit a whole book in these things.

These are compatible with existing reasons so assuming I don't hear anything super-negative back, we'll try to get these through in the next couple of days. Hopefully along with an EOL entry too.

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  • @Mateo Yeah I'm still not sure about that sentence in general. I've changed it to "or" and I'll read over it again in a little bit to see if I can beat it into anything better.
    – Oli Mod
    Jul 10, 2013 at 17:00
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    hm, how about "with Ubuntu and its development version" with a link to askubuntu.com/questions/18641/…
    – Mateo
    Jul 10, 2013 at 19:33
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    These are good close reasons. Couldn't we 1 - take pro forma comments towards close reasons and 2 - take close reasons towards pro forma comments? I really think they should be close to identical. Jul 11, 2013 at 14:58

1 Answer 1

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I take issue with the last one:

You have described a problem that can't be reproduced that seemingly went away on its own or was only relevant to a very specific period of time. It's off-topic as it's unlikely to help future readers.

Questions that can no longer be reproduced aren't really off-topic. I know that's the way the folks at SE want us to close them, but to me that makes no sense and will only confuse users.

This is currently being discussed in Responding to your "too localized" concerns over on MSO.

The other reasons look great!

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    I think if a problem mysteriously went away and there's not enough information to answer the question, the question should be closed (as we've always done). But I also agree: The off-topic close reason is poorly suited to this. The purpose of the new close reasons is to make SE more transparent and intuitive. It's not intuitive that a problem would become off-topic because the information necessary to solve it became inaccessible. I think this may also make reviewing more difficult and/or cause incorrect "Leave Open" reviews unless the questions are very well commented. Jul 11, 2013 at 22:00
  • @EliahKagan I agree 100%. Do you think a close reason of "Obsolete" would cover the gaps left my TL? See the bottom of my answer here: meta.stackexchange.com/a/185129/203389 Also, very well commented questions don't usually get their comments read since there are so many..
    – Seth
    Jul 11, 2013 at 22:02

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