Questions tagged [discussion]

The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.

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Thank you to whoever removes spam from Ask Ubuntu

... whoever manages / monitors this forum and removes the annoying spam health / medical rubbish which appears is doing a fantastic job. This is for Ubuntu questions, not 411 spam. Keep up the good ...
Piloti's user avatar
  • 1,110
40 votes
2 answers
2k views

Please can people format code properly

Recently I've seen a lot of code being formatted as quote. This is not how it should be done. All code should be formatted with one of two styles. If it is just 1 line, with other text around it, ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 32.8k
40 votes
2 answers
926 views

EOL Notice: Vivid Vervet (15.04) is now EOL as of February 4, 2016

This is a notice regarding releases of Ubuntu that have reached End of Life. The following versions of Ubuntu and derivatives are officially end of life as of February 4, 2016: Vivid Vervet (15.04)...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k
40 votes
0 answers
420 views

2014 Community Moderator Election Results

Ask Ubuntu's 4th moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 2 new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for ...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 101
38 votes
1 answer
421 views

Tips for users to write better questions and avoid negative feedback

This is for all more or less new users that posted questions here and searched for help, but got much negative feedback from the community in form of downvotes and closing their questions. I want to ...
Byte Commander's user avatar
  • 107k
38 votes
0 answers
366 views

Please consider not leaving feedback as Community♦

Thanks for reviewing. I really appreciate it. Recently review got reformatted quite a lot. Personally, I don't like many of the changes. I guess I'm an old stick-in-the-mud. But about one feature in ...
Zanna's user avatar
  • 70.4k
37 votes
13 answers
1k views

Tools for Ask Ubuntu

As some of you know, I have created some tools for Stack Exchange sites (like Ask Ubuntu) on Stack Apps. What tools have been developed for Ask Ubuntu, or are especially useful to Ask Ubuntu users?
37 votes
5 answers
14k views

$ (prompt) in command line instructions

I noticed a minor 'edit war' in an answer (NB: broken link, I'm guessing the answer was deleted) regarding whether or not we should promote $ at the front of command line instructions. Is one of ...
8128's user avatar
  • 28.7k
37 votes
3 answers
662 views

Is it possible to ask a Question you already know and answer it

After reading this question: Ought one to answer one's own question? what happens in the case that you know several questions that will further help the community but you want to make the question ...
Luis Alvarado's user avatar
37 votes
6 answers
1k views

What are common canonical questions for our site?

So according to the Gospel of Spolsky 13:4, a core mission of Stack Exchange communities is to stop re-answering the same questions, and instead build a library of canonical answers. When general ...
Jjed's user avatar
  • 13.9k
37 votes
3 answers
411 views

Please stop voting to close 13.04 questions for no reason

There were a bunch of great questions this morning in the close queue because they were about 13.04. It doesn't make sense to close them just because 13.04 is a few days away. We're supposed to be ...
Jorge Castro's user avatar
  • 71.7k
37 votes
0 answers
1k views

EOL Notice: Precise Pangolin (12.04) reached End of Life on April 28, 2017

This will be enforced starting on April 28, 2017. This is a notice regarding releases of Ubuntu that have reached End of Life. The following versions of Ubuntu and derivatives are officially end of ...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k
36 votes
5 answers
1k views

How to help a paranoid, delusional user?

Earlier today, this question was asked and contained a delusional rant about the KKK and the FBI and looked a bit like an episode of the X-files... My question is simple: Should we help this user (...
Fabby's user avatar
  • 34.2k
36 votes
2 answers
1k views

Moderators are *not* the Software Police! (Read for details!)

TL;DR because I know there's people who don't want to read all this. If a user is simply referencing that they are having an issue with a piece of software and that it is cracked (like a ...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k
36 votes
0 answers
928 views

Ubuntu Cosmic Cuttlefish 18.10 is now released, and posts about it are (generally) No Longer Offtopic

As of about 17:47 UTC on October 18, 2018, Ubuntu Cosmic Cuttlefish 18.10 has been officially released. The corresponding release announcement email that went out to the ubuntu-announce mailing list ...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k
35 votes
7 answers
1k views

Should we allow questions that are about releases which are considered End of Life?

I'd like to rehash this topic as I was under the impression that EOL releases of Ubuntu are off-topic. The site has grown a lot since it was original discussed so I'd like to see if this is something ...
Marco Ceppi's user avatar
  • 48.1k
35 votes
2 answers
768 views

2019 Community Moderator Election Results

Ask Ubuntu's sixth moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied and the new moderator is: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly—please thank them for ...
Jon Ericson's user avatar
35 votes
8 answers
2k views

Ban ChatGPT and AI-generated answers on Ask Ubuntu?

ChatGPT generated answers have been found across the Stack Exchange network and some examples have also been recently seen and removed from Ask Ubuntu. Our colleagues on Stack Overflow have put a ...
andrew.46's user avatar
  • 38k
35 votes
2 answers
691 views

Why are you only allowed to comment with 50 rep?

Why are you only allowed to comment on other people's posts when you reached 50 reputation? In my opinion comments are a good way to ask people to clarify their questions or add additional information ...
fly.floh's user avatar
  • 121
35 votes
3 answers
752 views

Summer cleanup, feedback wanted, etc

Basically, what I'd like to do is get community 'permission' to do the following over the next few weeks (for whats left of June, and then thereafter whenever I have time): Completely destroy and ...
jrg's user avatar
  • 60.6k
35 votes
2 answers
4k views

PSA: gksu is no longer installed by default

Turns out gksu is no longer installed by default. Some things still depend on it so it might be installed on your system - but on a clean install, it seems it's no longer required. As for why, see: ...
Oli's user avatar
  • 293k
34 votes
7 answers
826 views

Are we truly "Eager to help"

This question was prompted by this one. At first glance I agreed that this looked like a horrible question with a lack of detail, then I recalled the initial slideshow when a new user installs ...
Elder Geek's user avatar
34 votes
2 answers
1k views

EOL Notice: Wily Werewolf (15.10) is now End of Life (as of July 28, 2016) (Enforcement starts July 29)

This will be enforced starting on July 29, 2016. This is a notice regarding releases of Ubuntu that have reached End of Life. The following versions of Ubuntu and derivatives are officially end of ...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k
34 votes
1 answer
1k views

Don't be too eager to answer a question you know the answer of

Readme This question is not a personal complaint towards anyone. That's the reason I'd rather not give examples and I don't think I need to. The question is a call to be a bit more aware of what we ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 83.7k
34 votes
1 answer
1k views

PSA: 11.10 Release today! (aka. let's get rockin')

I know, I know, I always put out a warning, but release time is usually when more users start using Ubuntu and as a bonus this time Ask Ubuntu is featured in the Ubuntu installer slider show: Some ...
Jorge Castro's user avatar
  • 71.7k
33 votes
4 answers
442 views

Does rarely being able to answer questions make me a "poor" user?

I am aware that I can rarely ever offer anything of value in terms of answer to questions. I feel bad about this because I should be giving back for the free help that I receive. Does not answering ...
Matthew Brown aka Lord Matt's user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
697 views

Should we be encouraging people to vote more?

I wanted to blog/tweet our list of unanswered questions, which appear to be sorted by vote. However I noticed that given the amount of users on this site that the amount of voting on the questions isn'...
Jorge Castro's user avatar
  • 71.7k
33 votes
3 answers
818 views

Are bash/shell scripting questions on topic?

I have seen a number of users voting to close scripting questions as off topic. Is this the community consensus? Are bash questions not welcome here? How about other shell programming questions?
terdon's user avatar
  • 101k
33 votes
4 answers
1k views

How do we tell if a question belongs here, or rather at stackoverflow/superuser?

I asked a question about vim in the ubuntu stackexchange, and someone suggested it should be taken to stack overflow or superuser. Would this be relevant, or should general Linux/UNIX software stuff ...
Jeremy Kerr's user avatar
  • 27.2k
33 votes
4 answers
2k views

McAfee Site Advisor indicates that this site is risky to visit?

Are you aware that McAfee Site Advisor is indicating that www.askubuntu.com is a risky site to visit? I'm wondering what they saw that caused this risk rating. Also, it might have implications into ...
mdpc's user avatar
  • 1,199
33 votes
3 answers
373 views

Can we improve the path from ubuntu.com to here?

In the time I've spent here, I've noticed a clear difference between AU and the other SE sites I frequent. There seem to be far more bad questions (that show no research effort, don't explain anything ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 101k
33 votes
0 answers
262 views

Ubuntu is 12 (20/10/16)

Just thought I would post this I found on OMG Ubuntu, seems very appropriate here :) Today is Ubuntu's 12th birthday, Happy Birthday Ubuntu!!! The OMG Ubuntu link contains an Ubuntu quiz you can ...
Mark Kirby's user avatar
  • 18.5k
32 votes
9 answers
967 views

How should we celebrate 10 years of Ask Ubuntu?

It seems that Ask Ubuntu was launched on or around 10th October 2010. This means that our 10th birthday is coming up in about three months :) This post is here to invite your ideas on how we can ...
Zanna's user avatar
  • 70.4k
32 votes
2 answers
290 views

Obscure links to promote service

There's an interesting question (link for 10k'rs only) that was posted recently. On face value, it looks like a valid post. It asks a valid ubuntu question, but if you look a bit closer, it has a ...
anonymous2's user avatar
  • 4,298
32 votes
2 answers
525 views

Scammers try to push Windows App to Ubuntu & Sock puppets on askubuntu.com

Had posted (now gone) a question on how to install a franchise fraud application on Ubuntu, as he seemingly can't get it to work. Researching what this application is, I couldn't help myself but ...
MadMike's user avatar
  • 4,244
32 votes
3 answers
622 views

Ask Ubuntu Birthday Celebration?

Did you know Ask Ubuntu's anniversary of its graduation is coming up on 10 October? Congratulations! How about a fun activity to stir things up a little? After a year of great Q&A, we'd like the ...
Aarthi's user avatar
  • 101
32 votes
0 answers
595 views

Serial downvote: how to make it stop? Tired of having my questions deleted

For the second time on askubuntu.com, I got serial downvoted. The user who downvotes targets questions with no upvote and no answer so that after the downvote the question will automatically deleted....
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
31 votes
11 answers
1k views

Is the Ask Ubuntu community generally more friendly than Stack Overflow - If so, why?

This is not a rant! These are my initial thoughts in a discussion which I'm hoping other people will want to engage with. I want to hear your opinions on the following questions which I put to you. I ...
user3728501's user avatar
  • 1,054
31 votes
4 answers
625 views

2020 Community Moderator Election Results

Ask Ubuntu's seventh moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied and the two new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly—please thank them for ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 103
31 votes
3 answers
504 views

What to do with abandoned questions?

It's inevitable that people will come to this site, ask a low quality question, and not return to follow up on comments requesting additional information. What should be done with these examples? ...
Marco Ceppi's user avatar
  • 48.1k
30 votes
6 answers
469 views

Please don't flag old questions as EOL

This discussion recently popped up on Active Questions because of a new answer. Ever since then, there have been EOL flags in the Close Vote queue for questions that were not EOL when asked; there ...
TheWanderer's user avatar
  • 19.4k
30 votes
10 answers
2k views

Ask Ubuntu Clean Up

tl;dr Go to http://cleanup.thepcspy.com and start cleaning! It only took a year but it's finally here: It's clean up time! But let's step back a bit... What on earth am I talking about? Well we get a ...
Oli's user avatar
  • 293k
30 votes
1 answer
275 views

You can vote - do it!

That about says it. Currently out of the top 15 posts in the newest questions, the total number of votes on questions and answers is 4 positive and 1 negative. This seems a bit low to me. Friends, ...
anonymous2's user avatar
  • 4,298
30 votes
4 answers
482 views

Please do not delete closed questions with many views and many upvotes

Recently closed questions appear in the delete queue even though they had many upvotes and many views too. Some examples: What media (music and video) players are there? 52 upvotes 21k views 21 fav ...
Takkat's user avatar
  • 142k
29 votes
24 answers
896 views

More interesting name for our main chat room?

Most sites use interesting and humorous chat room names related to their site topic, like /dev/chat (Unix &Linux) The DMZ (Security) Root Access (Super User) The 2nd Monitor (Code Review) The ...
Byte Commander's user avatar
  • 107k
29 votes
4 answers
341 views

Should I edit posts to improve clarity?

When someone has asked a question using bad grammar or bad formatting, I find it difficult to read. So, the natural response? Clean it up. However, I'm realising that I make these edits fairly ...
anonymous2's user avatar
  • 4,298
29 votes
8 answers
2k views

2020 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire

In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 101
29 votes
1 answer
904 views

What do we do about mirror sites?

Following searching various things for this question, I found: http://askubuntu.greatknow.com/questions/294850/does-canonical-have-other-deals-with-companies-like-the-amazon-search-feature which ...
Wilf's user avatar
  • 30.2k
29 votes
1 answer
6k views

Please do not use links as entire answers!

I have recently noticed a trend going around, and to be perfectly honest it's pissing me off. What new users (and some experience users,) do nowadays is go to the main page, find a question that's ...
David's user avatar
  • 3,367
29 votes
2 answers
4k views

Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04) LTS is now released, and posts about it are (generally) No Longer Offtopic

(Meant to post this yesterday but crashed hard from lack of sleep) As of about 17:47:04 UTC on April 23, 2020, Ubuntu Focal Fossa 20.04 LTS has been officially released. The corresponding release ...
Thomas Ward's user avatar
  • 74.4k

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