Improving question closed banners for most users - short wording needed for site specific reasons

Question

So, not very long ago a change was made to the format of the banner that appears at the top of closed questions. It no longer shows who closed the post (I disapprove of this change, but this post here is not about that) and it no longer shows a detailed description of the reason for closure, except to the OP and to users with the close vote privilege, which is a small minority of all visitors to the site.

Here are some examples:

• This is what a question closed as "no-repro" looks like to the author of the question:

  

• Here's what a question closed as "not about Ubuntu" looks like to high rep users:

  

• And here's what that question looks like in an incognito/private browsing session (i.e. to the vast majority of users):

  

The text explaining the reason for the closure is missing. There's currently no way for this text to be displayed to everyone.

Personally, I think this is bad, because people who don't have the close voting privilege should still be able to understand why questions are being closed. This will be particularly helpful to keen new users who want to learn how to do moderation tasks, and to visitors thinking of posting questions.

In the future, this might change, but for now, we can make at least a small improvement. You'll notice that there is a part of the close notice that is shown to everyone:

At the moment, this is the same for all of our site-specific close reasons. It just says the question is off topic.

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The point of this post (if you're still reading, thanks :) ) is to propose short versions of each of the reasons to be used instead of that generic text, so that everyone can at least get some idea of why the question was closed.

• I propose that the short version of close reason #1:

  This is not about an official Ubuntu flavor. Questions about other Linux distributions can be asked on Unix & Linux, those about Windows on Super User, those about Apple products on Ask Different and generic programming questions on Stack Overflow.

  be this:

  This question is off topic; it's not about an official Ubuntu flavor.

• I propose that the short version for close reason #2:

  Bug reports and problems specific to development version of Ubuntu should be reported on Launchpad so that developers can see, track and fix these issues.

  be this:

  This question is off topic; the issue should be reported as a bug.

• I propose that the short version for close reason #3:

  End of Standard Support or End of Life Release
  This question is specific to a release of Ubuntu which has reached its end of standard support or end of life date, and is not related to asking for help to upgrade to a supported release. Such questions are considered unsupported and off-topic on Ask Ubuntu.

  be this:

  This question is off topic; it's specific to an old unsupported release.

• I propose that the short version for close reason #4:

  This describes a problem that can't be reproduced, that seemingly went away on its own or was only relevant to a very specific period of time. It's off-topic as it's unlikely to help future readers.

  be this:

  This question is off topic; it's about a problem that can't be reproduced.

Please post any thoughts on this issue and/or feedback or suggestions to improve the proposed wording in answers or comments.

Answer 1

UPDATE:

I've updated the close blurbs for 1 and 4 below to match the text I've proposed. I haven't updated 2 because there was some ongoing discussion about site scope that seems to need to wrap up before we change the wording here.

I didn't update 3 because it was already customized so I wasn't sure whether I should leave the current version or update it to my proposal below. The current text is:

This question is off-topic, as it is specific to an unsupported release of Ubuntu. It is not currently accepting answers.

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I've been working on these edits across the network off and on for different sites - as such, I'd like to throw some alternatives at y'all based on my experience. Feel free suggest changes or decide the other version is better if you want.

Before I get into that, I will confirm that I've had a discussion internally and, while I don't know when it will happen, the consensus is that we will eventually be showing the full close reason to everyone (again).

Also, I'll take a minute to plug my guide to writing close reasons on Meta Stack Exchange. While I'm OK with making this interim change because I agree that the short form is often not useful or downright wrong - i.e. not all community-specific close reasons are "off topic" at all - I'd love it if y'all could work on improving the full five fields that can be updated.

If you have questions about this, let me know.

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1. Not about Ubuntu

Full text:

This is not about an official Ubuntu flavor. Questions about other Linux distributions can be asked on Unix & Linux, those about Windows on Super User, those about Apple products on Ask Different and generic programming questions on Stack Overflow.

Your version:

This question is off topic; it's not about an official Ubuntu flavor.

My recommendation:

This question was closed because it is not about an official Ubuntu flavor. It is not currently accepting answers.

2. Bug reports

Full text:

Bug reports and problems specific to development version of Ubuntu should be reported on Launchpad so that developers can see, track and fix these issues.

Your version:

This question is off topic; the issue should be reported as a bug.

My recommendation:

This question was closed because it should be reported on Launchpad as a bug. It is not currently accepting answers.

3. Unsupported Ubuntu versions

Full text:

End of Standard Support or End of Life Release
This question is specific to a release of Ubuntu which has reached its end of standard support or end of life date, and is not related to asking for help to upgrade to a supported release. Such questions are considered unsupported and off-topic on Ask Ubuntu.

Your version:

This question is off topic; it's specific to an old unsupported release.

My recommendation:

This question was closed because it's about using an unsupported release of Ubuntu. It is not currently accepting answers.

In this one, I thought that "using" might bring the focus to the use of the release as opposed to the upgrading away from it - which seems to be allowed. That said, I'm not sure whether "using" captures the full scope of this close reason. I also said "of Ubuntu" since that's what the link goes to - it doesn't seem to be used for flavors other than real Ubuntu.

4. Can't be reproduced.

Full text:

This describes a problem that can't be reproduced, that seemingly went away on its own or was only relevant to a very specific period of time. It's off-topic as it's unlikely to help future readers.

Your version:

This question is off topic; it's about a problem that can't be reproduced.

My recommendation:

This question was closed because the problem as described can't be reproduced. It is not currently accepting answers.

General notes:

I've removed "off-topic" from these because it's something that ends up being a thing people can argue about or get hung up on. I find just saying that it's closed and why can be neater.

The "It is not currently accepting answers." is going to be the sort of default we add to all close reasons.

I've omitted the links in these short versions of close reasons because I'm a bit concerned about cases where they're the same link that's going to appear in both the short version and the long version - it means that the asker and high-rep users will see the same link twice, but with different text, which readers tend to assume will be a different link, not two separate cases of the same link. I understand wanting to have the link in the short version but it might make sense to think about whether it should also be in the long version.

This is, again, an argument to refresh these entirely with wording that is more targeted at the people who will be seeing these notices.

Also, if you like the headers I used, I can go ahead and make them the "name" of the close reason, which will make that the quick-reference term used in the close dialogue.

Answer 2

My brain wanted to keep poking at this so I wanted to do a non-Ubuntu user version of the five-field format as an example for one of the close reasons so that y'all can see what it could look like in practice.

Not about Ubuntu

Close/flag modal:

It's important to keep in mind that this is only visible to people casting close votes or flagging to close, so they're likely more informed about these tools - that said, we should still consider flaggers and newer close voters who may not be fluent in them. As such, linking to help center or meta discussions about this can help inform them. I couldn't find a meta discussion about this, though - if there is one, it might be worth adding.

Use this close reason for questions that are not about an official Ubuntu flavor. Consider leaving a comment recommending they ask on the appropriate Stack Exchange site, such as Unix & Linux, Super User, Ask Different, or Stack Overflow.

I'm not sure whether the Ubuntu official list of flavors or the on-topic page is better here - I do like keeping links on site but I'm not sure how often the list is updated on the on topic page. Leaving a comment is valuable for close voters to consider because it might get the user the information that their question is off topic sooner.

Here's kinda what the brief description and usage guidance would look like in the close modal.

Close description

This question was closed because it is not about an official Ubuntu flavor. It is not currently accepting answers.

Kept the link here to the on-topic page because we want to keep viewers on the site rather than sending them to the Ubuntu site.

Post owner guidance:

This is shown with the close description, so it doesn't need to duplicate it - it should be instructions to the asker about why their question was closed and how to improve it.

Your question may be more appropriate on another Stack Exchange site. Ask questions about other Linux distributions on Unix & Linux, Windows on Super User, Apple products on Ask Different and generic programming questions on Stack Overflow. If your question is about an official flavor of Ubuntu, please edit it to make that clear.

Here's what the asker would see as the post notice:

Privileged user guidance:

Like the Post owner guidance, this is shown with the Close description, so it can avoid restating the content there.

If you can guide the asker to the correct site, please consider doing so in a comment. If you believe that this question is about an official flavor of Ubuntu, please edit the question to make that clear or leave a comment guiding the user on how to improve their question.

Here's what users with the close privilege would see:

I really love when these close post notices encourage action by the reader - it can help them know what to do next. So often, we say "this is off-topic" and think that's the end of it, so it can feel really helpless to not know what to do now. Comments are the best way reviewers can help since the comment can be customized to the question in a way that we could never do with rote close reasons.