-4

In my quest to clean up the 4000+ unanswered questions with the blacklisted installation tag, I'm constantly running across unanswered questions regarding EOL releases like these:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/271868/ubuntu-12-10-problem-installer-stops-working

https://askubuntu.com/questions/296866/cannot-do-fresh-install-of-ubuntu-13-04-while-booting-from-dvd-soft-lockup-bu

https://askubuntu.com/questions/286330/ubuntu-13-04-installation-error

which I flag as EOL (when I raise this flag the system also raises the "can't be reproduced, was only valid for a short period of time flag")

As the close queues are constantly full (AFAIK, correct me if I'm wrong) wouldn't it be more effective to run a script to eliminate these unanswered questions regarding end of life distributions? Can this be considered?

23
  • 4
    The thing is, not all unanswered questions need to go.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 18:48
  • 2
    Also, it is better to close old unanswered questions where the OP hasn't been seen in a long time as not-reproducible.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 18:49
  • @Seth Thank you for your input. I agree that not all unanswered questions need to go, my question was regarding EOL releases. I'll clarify my question.
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 22:53
  • Dunno why you're getting downvotes, I didn't downvote.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 22:55
  • On meta downvotes just mean disagreement, and it doesn't affect rep.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 23:01
  • @Seth All the more reason to clarify the question I think. I'm obviously not here for the rep. I don't think you earn the tenacious badge for being popular. ;-)
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Jun 26, 2014 at 23:05
  • How about some comments? Down voting doesn't result in discussion. I'd like to understand your logic if you think this is a bad idea. Thank you!
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 1:36
  • If they weren't EOL when the question was asked - they should not get flagged or closed as EOL. Don't close/flag "ex post facto"
    – Mateo
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 2:00
  • 2
    Your solution makes sense to me.
    – please delete me
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 3:33
  • 1
    @Mateo downvoting seems like The Best Thing To Do™
    – Braiam
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 11:04
  • 1
    @Briam if "downvoting seems like The Best Thing To Do™" would you care to help by downvoting some of the thousands of useless unanswered EOL questions tagged installation? After all a downvote only costs 1 point of rep. I won't get very far on the project without some help if I do it your way.
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 14:04
  • 1
    What is wrong with marking them off-topic? Whether a question is on-topic or not is a temporal judgement. A question may have been on topic when asked in the past, but the question is still open, and now it is off-topic. As for the suggestion to autoclose - judging by the close queue, most people are already marking these old questions as off-topic, so it wouldn't make that much difference if it were a bot doing the closing. Perhaps there should be a Launchpad-style bot that asks "Is this still a problem" and then auto-closes if it gets no response.
    – bain
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 14:14
  • 1
    There is already a system for automatically taking care of old questions meta.stackexchange.com/questions/78048/… and down-voting questions don't cost any rep.
    – Mateo
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 16:02
  • 1
    Also I saw many in the queue that had little to do with the mentioned EOL release - and were good questions! "Closing something because we (as a site) can't answer it just compounds one failure on top of another." - meta.askubuntu.com/a/7153/47291
    – Mateo
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 16:09
  • 1
    Also this: meta.askubuntu.com/a/6651/47291 especially the paragraph in all caps.
    – Mateo
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 16:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-1

I think that rather than voting to close/flagging, is more useful just to downvote it if the question has no future relevance (ie. installing EOL version of Ubuntu and having a problem) or that the version plays an important role (cue all the hardware problems).

What shouldn't? Well, things that doesn't matter what version of Ubuntu you have: create a desktop icon, or a launcher menu; changing the ordering of the entries at grub; installing a specific piece of software; summary, anything that doesn't need troubleshooting. That's a sane way to go.

Ah, bugs are still off topic, those should be closed nevertheless.

2
  • I must have misunderstood. I thought downvotes were for bad questions/answers. It seems clear that EOL versions are OT or that wouldn't be an option for flagging. I thought that was also made quite clear here: askubuntu.com/help/on-topic. It's not my intent to be abrasive, I'm just looking for logical solutions to obvious problems.
    – Elder Geek
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 0:28
  • 2
    @ElderGeek but closing it wastes everyones' time, you need 5 users to close a question, and just 1 to delete an old post via downvote. There's even a community manager that prefers that you downvote an old question so it gets deleted, rather than close it.
    – Braiam
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 1:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .