1

I have a question about my Ask Ubuntu post: Full Disk Encryption that is FIPS certified

I had the exact same question as the poster in the link above. Unfortunately, it does not have any answers. However, it is several months old, so I thought the poster might have resolved the issue since then but forgot to post a follow-up answer.

I signed up for Ask Ubuntu, but I quickly realized it was not possible to interact with the question in any meaningful way.

I didn't realize it at the time, but it looks like this meta question exactly captures my dilemma.

At the time, I assumed asking the same question would be immediately closed as a duplicate. So instead, I took the only action I thought I could; I posted the comment-as-an-answer above, which promptly got downvoted and deleted. Yet the user who deleted my post did not provide any guidance on what to do instead. After searching the meta questions, I eventually found the post above, which would have been helpful. But it would have been even more helpful if there had been clear instructions to begin with.

5
  • As a follow-up to this, I tried to follow the advice and create a new question referencing the old issue. Unfortunately, submitting the question fails with no provided reason in both Firefox and Chrome. Clicking "Post your question" simply scrolls to the top of the page. Am I not allowed to ask questions because my prior answer was deleted?
    – user1578175
    Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 16:19
  • 1
    You all are actually paying for support, right? Then why aren't you taking advantage of that and using the support channels to ask Canonical how to do this?
    – muru
    Commented Mar 14, 2022 at 22:08
  • You're right. We have good reason to have the rule against comments as answers, but whoever deleted should ideally have explained why. Sorry you had a bad experience.
    – terdon
    Commented Mar 15, 2022 at 19:54
  • I asked my IT department how to contact Canonical. They haven't been very responsive. We have a few thousand employees, but Linux users are a pretty small user base, so we don't get much attention or support. And as a long-time Linux user, I've also just grown accustomed to finding solutions on my own. But perhaps I should see if I can figure out how to contact Canonical on myself. I just have no idea how to prove we have a support contract in place.
    – user1578175
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 2:13
  • Seems like the actual meta Question is in the 4th/5th paragraphs. Don't be distracted by the backstory.
    – user535733
    Commented Mar 17, 2022 at 22:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

You can "elevate" an unanswered question by helping to improve it.

  • Make sure it has the right tags, so it shows up to subscribers of those tags.
  • Make sure it has the right keywords and phrases so it shows up in searches.
  • If output or additional detail or troubleshooting tests have been requested but not provided, help provide it. "I have the exact same issue, and my output is...."
  • If the question is clear but poorly written, offer a suggested edit (rewrite) for the community to review.

After you edit an unanswered question, it pops to the top of the Home page and gets immediate visibility by a lot of the volunteers here. It will, of course, slowly start working its way downhill as other edits and posts grab that coveted top position.

DON'T hijack a question into something different with your edits. Make sure you are really improving the original question, and helping to make it answerable.

DON'T make trivial changes to a Question just to keep recycling it to the top. Trying to game the system will quickly attract the ire of a Moderator.

DON'T make changes to an answered question if the answer didn't work for you. That often means your problem is different. Instead, post a new question clearly showing how it didn't work -- and is therefore not a duplicate.

Also, many questions are unanswered simply because they are unanswerable as currently written. Maybe they lack detail. Maybe they have a conceptual flaw. Maybe the person asking was misdirected. Questions that are obviously off-topic or abandoned with insufficient data should be closed instead of elevated.

Finally, the answer you need might be in AskUbuntu already...but attached to a question that is differently worded, misspelled, or have the wrong tags. A few minutes trying to outwit the Search box with different terms and permutations might payoff handsomely. If you strike gold and find a great answer to a poorly-written question, please help improve that question so others can find it without suffering.

P.S. ...and, of course, remember to post an answer to your own question if you discover a better answer on your own!

You must log in to answer this question.