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Some time ago, we introduced "just in time" tag warnings on Stack Overflow.

These warnings are meant to provide users with just-in-time information to help them avoid common mistakes in the tag they're using (e.g. SQL questions should mention the engine they use).

Here's what they look like:

SQL Tag Warning

Why Am I Telling You This?

It looks like Ask Ubuntu could benefit from using those as well, perhaps for questions, as suggested in this answer by Oli.

If the Ask Ubuntu community feels this might be useful, then we could experiment with tag warnings here. This is pretty easy to configure on our end (Stack Exchange) if you can provide us with tags and associated warnings (those can include links and basic HTML formatting).

However, note that this feature is still experimental, so we don't know how well it performs, if at all (and we might eventually remove it).

What's next?

If you think Ask Ubuntu should experiment with this feature, please provide a tag and corresponding warning as an answer (consider including an explanation, too!). Upvote suggestions you agree with, downvote suggestions you disagree with.

Of course, more general comments are welcome too!


Relevant links:

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    Thanks! We have several hardware-based tags where explicit information is often essential. I'm a thousand miles (and change) from my keyboard at the moment so could somebody else get the various graphics and WiFi tags covered? I'll be back in a few days otherwise.
    – Oli Mod
    Jul 29, 2015 at 11:01
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    I'd be very pleased if all those users asking questions such as "WIFI NOT WORKING!!! PLZ HELP!!!" would be prompted with some constructive advices first
    – kos
    Jul 29, 2015 at 13:01
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    Me gusta mucho.
    – RolandiXor
    Jul 29, 2015 at 18:59
  • (Very), very, very nice! Jul 29, 2015 at 19:24
  • Should this be featured on the main site perhaps? So far I don't see that much partecipation
    – kos
    Jul 31, 2015 at 8:25
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    @kos Yes. Long story short: we thought about waiting for a little bit first, but there seems to be little reason to. I'll feature it now. Jul 31, 2015 at 8:29
  • This feature if just plain awesome!
    – Dan
    Jul 31, 2015 at 14:47
  • Is the status-planned tag appropriate now? I don't think so. Dec 16, 2021 at 18:40

5 Answers 5

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EOL releases , , etc. (whatever is listed as EOL on the Ubuntu Wiki):

The Ubuntu release is end-of-life — questions here on that version are now off-topic.

If you need help installing software on or upgrading from a unsupported release, please read How to install software or upgrade from an old unsupported release.

Main meta thing: http://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/14228/methods-for-combating-eol-questions.

Another could be done for Ubuntu+1 releases (currently 15.10).

0
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Adapted from: My wireless/WiFi connection does not work. What information is needed to diagnose the issue?

Please provide details about your wireless card obtained from your system as outlined in this answer or, if you have a wired connection, consider this all-in-one script.

If you know the manufacturer of your wireless card (Broadcom, Qualcomm Atheros, etc.) using the associated tags would be helpful.

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  • Commands in a comment... easier to link to the answer :)
    – Wilf
    Jul 29, 2015 at 12:53
  • @Wilf made it comm wiki. Edit away. I just wanted to get this started.
    – muru
    Jul 29, 2015 at 12:54
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    A networking troubleshooter that requires they download something is probably a non-starter.
    – Oli Mod
    Jul 29, 2015 at 14:18
  • @Oli wifi. We can reasonably assume wired connection, can't we?
    – muru
    Jul 29, 2015 at 14:18
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    We'd need a sort of "how can I get the necessary information to get help with my wireless device" canonical here on meta to link to, that's a bit to cram into the 'jit' box. The help would rather urgently ask folks to click the link to the meta post prior to posting to ensure a fast and comprehensive answer. This looks like it might be a good candidate to try.
    – Tim Post
    Jul 29, 2015 at 14:44
  • @muru I don't think so, no. Very few non-geeks I know with laptops have (or know they have) a wired option (or a network cable). I think we should target no network users (so that includes making getting the information back to AU as easy as possible too)
    – Oli Mod
    Jul 29, 2015 at 16:36
  • A link to a meta post would do, however going further I think instructions along with a directly downloadable version if possible would be the best thing, to take out the need of fixing the CR characters of users copying the script on Windows / other systems.
    – kos
    Jul 29, 2015 at 17:28
  • Community wiki, people! Edit away. We can improve this by iteration.
    – muru
    Jul 30, 2015 at 15:54
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    What do people think of my revision? We might consider adding a sentence to explain this information is essential to getting their problem solved.. but I'm not sure what the character limits are.
    – Seth
    Aug 1, 2015 at 19:07
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    @Seth at least 273 characters (counting the example SQL message + markdown formatting characters), probably a lot more, since they had no compunctions about using ... instead of the ellipsis character ().
    – muru
    Aug 1, 2015 at 22:26
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Off-topic things:

You have tagged your question with

Please note that if this question is not about Ubuntu, or not within the scope defined by the help center it will likely be closed

You can ask your question over at Unix & Linux, but please make sure you include details.

The last bit heavily depends on what tag is applied - see list below:

Unix & Linux Qs:

currently nonexistent tags - could be created if needed:
redhat, archlinux, mageia, centos

not sure about Mac here either.

Superuser

, etc for XP, vista, 10

Ask Different

Android

And so on for different things , perhaps even programming questions (with tag:LANGUAGE) (though those are half the fun :)

Main meta thing: http://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/11508/would-a-off-topic-tag-warning-be-a-good-idea

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graphics questions (possibly) , , , , , etc

Please make sure you provide information on the hardware you are using - for example include the output of:

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D|Display'

The manufacturer and model of the computer, as well as Ubuntu version may help also.

A script similar to the Wifi one be better though, to include other info like glxinfo: I have a hardware detection problem, what logs do I need to look into? . I can make one if needed.

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  • I changed the command, because it gives less output and provides all useful information.
    – Pilot6
    Aug 12, 2015 at 12:42
5

All questions potentially involving programming: , and just to mention the top three "potentially involving programming" tags;

I compiled a list of candidates based on this Stack Exchange Data Explorer query:

Tags already removed from the list for obvious reasons:

Other tags already removed:

Please suggest criteria to determine which tags are deserveful of a warning or just remove the tags you don't feel like deserveful (I guess we don't want all of them, or do we?)

Please make sure that your question is on-topic and about the development environment rather than about programming in general, your own under-development code or debugging; questions about the development environment intended in the general sense (such as questions about software which is run for the purpose of developing, like editors, compilers, interpreters and questions about the compilation of a source code) are generally on-topic, unless they relate to a specific under-development code or snippet; questions about programming in general, questions about code under development and questions about debugging are not on-topic.

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    ispell is probably the dictionary and not a coding language(?) and atom the gpu(?)
    – Rinzwind
    Aug 11, 2015 at 13:45
  • @Rinzwind Yes, thanks, I removed them from the list
    – kos
    Aug 11, 2015 at 15:55
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    also remove wayland (display server), rtl (right to left languages) Aug 15, 2015 at 20:50
  • Glad to see bash, sh and some other shells aren't affected... ?
    – Wilf
    Aug 21, 2015 at 13:53
  • @MartinThornton Thanks, done
    – kos
    Sep 18, 2015 at 15:15
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    @Wilf No, they're are on-topic! meta.askubuntu.com/questions/13807/…
    – kos
    Sep 18, 2015 at 15:18

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