Since most Linux distros, including Ubuntu and all its derivatives are considered to be open-source software platforms for anyone who's interested, I find it an abusive and counterproductive practice to close or put on hold with so much ease certain questions and/or answers asked by beginners as well as intermediate users who made this effort to register on askubuntu.com site just for asking one "simple" question, hoping this way that they could get an useful solution to their problem.

I know it and I know that you know it also that there are out there a whole bunch of people that have come to loathe Ubuntu community and Ubuntu Linux itself because they were treated in this manner (put on hold, duplicate, closed question) or even showed a complete lack of respect due to the fact that they were not as all-knowing Linux gurus as other more prominent members in here. The famous BUMP! is no longer used today but putting a new user on hold or closing his/her question with very few and often quite confusing explanatory details makes it no different than calling that user a bump for not being able to address the question with the outmost clarity.

I am not sure if you are still aware of the fact that there are out there tons of Ubuntu enthusiasts with very few knowledge about Linux and/or about how to address a question to a forum or a support website the proper way. But they still need help, and this is why they ask their question anyway in the hope that they could fix a problem which can be caused by their lack of skills or by some bugs or flows of the operating system itself.

If advanced technical questions are expected to be posted on AskUbuntu, then let people know about it so they won't bother the 'gurus' no more but otherwise it would be quite polite and productive to reply to any question with some direct answer, even if it were just to redirect the user to some other forum or support site. Of course, there are users who are trying to promote some linux distros using AskUbuntu as a platform for their "evil" intentions, and there are other users who may be plain rude but they are just a few compared to the rest of us whose questions are marked as duplicate or put on hold or closed.

Ubuntu changes its features little by little each year, and I think sometimes new solutions are needed for the same issues addressed in the past on AskUbuntu.com so it would be great if Closed, Duplicate or On-Hold options would be used less and direct answers even to some dumb question addressed more frequently.

Let us not forget that Ubuntu OS is trying hard to replace Windows operating system promising the average user quite an enjoyable experience, ease of use and a most stable operating system so, again, it would be nice not to break that promise and be more open to beginners like myself still trying to figure it out which one is better, Windows or Ubuntu, Ubuntu or Windows?