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's an example. 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.
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 on Launchpad.
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.