I already noticed that Luis alone marked the following question as a duplicate some time ago: My MTP capable device is not detected? What can I do about that?
Here is my observation on the topic:
- There have been many very localized questions about MTP support on a variety of devices.
- There have been as many answers to these questions suggesting a wide variety of things ignoring the integrated solution that landed later (the system didn't heal itself). Most of these suggestions are like law of instrument and usually without any analysis.
- Top answer: Compile the latest source code for yourself. – What if you are not that lucky and there is no newer version or it isn't fixed upstream? I don't consider this as the best answer for a user-friendly distribution.
- Second answer: Was copied 1:1 and had severe formatting issues resulting in some passages missing at the time as far as I can remember. The content itself is more like a short term solution, that ideally should be replaced with better desktop integration.
- Third answer: My attempt at debunking and troubleshooting at that time. It didn't get much attention even though I admittedly went beyond good practice pointing at it.
Just because something is popular doesn't mean it's the right solution or answer for everything barely related. It should have been obvious that there is an issue with how the existing question was answered, which I tried to address. A comment notifying me would have been nice, I would have even removed it myself in favor of a better solution. I can't help myself but doubt that this was a careful decision and not abuse of power.
In terms of knowledge management I think we should review existing questions and answers more carefully before enforcing them on others like in this example.
