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The question I am talking about:

  1. Help Center says:

    Ask Ubuntu is a questions and answers site for Ubuntu-related questions. It's also a place to share knowledge about Ubuntu.

    That particular question is surely Ubuntu-related - it's asking if reliable estimate of Ubuntu downloads can be made; not about any other Linux distribution.

  2. Now, let's move to the next part which outlines the specific category of questions which are not welcome on Ask Ubuntu.

    • Linux Mint, Backtrack, Gnome-Remix (prior to 13.04) and other Linux distributions.
    • Bug reports.
    • Issues with the next version of Ubuntu (Ubuntu+1).
    • Shopping Recommendations
    • Support of versions for Ubuntu releases past "End of Life" (EOL)

    The particular question definitely doesn't fall in any of these categories.

  3. The other types of questions which are not suited for Stack Exchange network are as mentioned in this Help Center article.

    You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

    Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

    The question we are discussing meets all the guidelines (in my opinion). It is practical.... answerable.... as well as reasonably scoped.

As far as my opinion is concerned, it falls within the scope of the site and a good question to have on Ask Ubuntu. Then, why is it attracting close-votes?

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  • I say "On Topic" if we take the premise of "a place to share knowledge about Ubuntu" as given.
    – MadMike
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 10:25
  • 2
    That question looks ontopic to me, it's answerable and has an answer (the answer is no, we don't track that).
    – Jorge Castro
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 16:10

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Reopened, per my comment on Braiam's answer:

It's not asking for statistics, it's (as of 23 hours ago) asking if there are mechanisms for tracking how many downloads there have been. I agree that numbers themselves can go stale but helping somebody work out if they can work something out about Ubuntu is perfectly on topic.

It's not just on topic, it has been answered. And I'm fairly sure there's something we could dupe-close it against... I feel like I've answered something about this before.

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  • Now, lets say you are right, reduct it ad absurdum and ask all kinds of raw numbers about Ubuntu. Opening this question that's the message we are transmitting. I would be glad to help him with his investigation but not on a Q&A site like Stack Exchange. It just doesn't fit the model. If I go to any SE site asking the same while being on topic I will surely get my question closed and maybe downvoted. We are just not the right site to ask. But you reopened it...
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:27
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    @Braiam You are totally missing the point.. He's not asking for numbers, he is asking if someone (maybe canonical) keeps track of the number of downloads each distribution of Ubuntu gets. Also, AFAIK, we are the only SE site that deals with "Community" style questions, mostly because we have backing from Canonical and we're (sorta) part of an actual community behind Ubuntu.
    – Seth
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:33
  • @Seth read the original question. Please. "How many person downloaded Ubuntu 13.10?" pure numbering.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:57
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    @Braiam Aditya just edited it into an answerable question. I don't see what you're all upset about. It isn't the first time someone has edited a question to make it more on-topic
    – Seth
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 18:00
  • @Braiam: Please don't close based on the original text of the question... The original text was crap I won't and don't support either which is the reason I edited it to make it more answerable.. Moreover, the edited question doesn't ask you the statistics, but the source of where that statistics is available (if at all)..
    – Aditya
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 18:28
  • @Aditya but you have butchered the question... at least you changed the meaning into something that OP didn't ask. Moderators had told me that I could edit a question without changing the meaning. With what you have done OP won't get the answers he wants. If you would have done such troughful editing (adding more than 300 characters) you should have asked a new question and pointing interested parties there. One thing is improving the question another is changing it into something OP didn't ask.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 21:28
  • @Seth I'm not upset. I'm just pointing out the fact that right now the question will not get the answers OP is looking for, nor this was the right place to ask for such information.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 21:29
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    @Braiam The OP will get the answer he's looking for, he just won't get it spoon fed into him.
    – Seth
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 21:30
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    It's the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him how to catch them. There's more utility in the second.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 21:49
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Then, why is it attracting close-votes?

Because we are not a news site. Statistics are good for a period of time and after that they become obsolete, like news does.

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    It's not asking for statistics, it's (as of 23 hours ago) asking if there are mechanisms for tracking how many downloads there have been. I agree that numbers themselves can go stale but helping somebody work out if they can work something out about Ubuntu is perfectly on topic.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 17:02
  • Just for reference sake, if this question attracked close votes and then was edited, the close votes were intended for the original question. That deserved to be closed.
    – don.joey
    Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 15:11

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