For instance, What are PPAs and how do I use them PPA? this has multiple correct answers depending on what version of Ubuntu you are using. Should we continue this method or look to create separate questions for each version of Ubuntu? Why either way?
asked Sep 21, 2011 at 20:48
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2In this particular instance, I think we could probably get away with keeping them together in a single question and just making notes here and there when differences are encountered.– Nathan OsmanCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 20:49
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2 Answers
One problem I can see with "all versions in one question" is that after a while it would be tough to "unseat" a proven answer for an old version. For example here's a popular question:
This is for 11.04. For 11.10 this will be different, it will have different looking settings, some new options in the dialogs, etc.
If I were to add an answer outlining it for 11.10 it would need to get 96 upvotes to come up top, we can't really control the order of the answers, and it wouldn't make sense to go and upvote things that are current for the new version and downvote things for another version, as the older answer is still valid and will be for the forseeable future.
On top of that it'd be up to the person who asked the question to accept and answer. What would that person choose? the latest stable version? latest LTS? What they're using? Even if we had a policy there's no way people would want to go on shifting their accepted answers depending on what Ubuntu version is current.
On the other hand having "How do I configure Unity?" for 10.10, 11.04, and now 11.10 would be seem to me to be even worse.
I've been doing it like this:
Where I add a version to each answer up top so that it's obvious to people that the answers are versioned. To me it seems the lesser of two evils.
answered Sep 22, 2011 at 0:32
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3Maybe this would be a good use case for Community Wiki?– Marco Ceppi ModCommented Sep 22, 2011 at 11:38
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I think these should have been seperate questions.
AU wants 1 answer to be accepted solely based on it being the most correct answer and all of them are correct for a particular version. Having them seperate would make them all
acceptablethus indicating they are the best method for that tag included with the question.More importantly... if 10.04 would have had its own answer it would disappear over time. As it would with all other questions: if they are about an old release they tend to stay away from the main view.
Now this topic is going to come back every 6 months and will become larger and larger and larger. Imagine what this looks like in 2 years if all releases would have a different method (probably wont but...).
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1I don't think so. Keeping all of the answers under the same question umbrella makes it easier to find than separate questions, which are subject to the "close as exact duplicate" hammer anyway. Please don't make me sift through separate questions. Commented Sep 21, 2011 at 22:09
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Answers for different versions can be linked together but I think it partly depends on how complex the answer is. If you can answer several different versions in a few lines of text, there's probably little reason to split it up. But if things are dramatically different, separate questions can be more clear. Commented Sep 23, 2011 at 6:04
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Robert Harvey please don't make me read 1 big topic when I am interested in 1 little bit of it. Different questions are a heck of a lot easier to find when using google or the AU search.– RinzwindCommented Sep 23, 2011 at 7:05
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I have to agree with this answer, I don't want to have a list of information when my question was directly related with a specific release. Why not edit the question and specify the release the question was directed at that version and specify that on tags, that way a user can look for ie:
11.04, fontsand another user can look for11.10, fontsand get answers only to the specific platform they are using. Commented Oct 4, 2011 at 12:52