37
I'm in the "who cares" camp.
If someone's using an old OS and there are people out there that want to answer their questions, then why not?
24
This is my argument against keeping them.
The Bug Squad and IRC council say "you should upgrade", and generally ignore them.
More specifically, the Bug Squad says "Try to replicate this bug on the latest stable and get back to us".
The questions about EOLed released that I've seen are all in the same vein - "How can I get software X on my 10.10". Well, ...
19
I agree and would be tempted to expand the plea to:
Look at what you're doing when you're reviewing things!
We've seen a few dodgy closes and attempted-closes slip through since the review system came in. It's a shame that closes can't be countered like-for-like.
By running through the reviews and rushing things by just agreeing, you're hurting the site. ...
17
Good question.
As somebody who had their own 9.10 install up until a few days ago, I think there's still call to support it, as your example question shows: people still have problems.
And while I agree "UPGRADE YOU FOOL!" is probably going to be the most popular answer on new threads about old versions, some people can't upgrade without a large amount of ...
15
These are not really questions about the the process of upgrading or a user going through the upgrade process.
The questions you are talking about are likely something like "Why should I upgrade" or "Will I have a problem upgrading with XX Computer or Graphics Card" These types of questions fit firmly into this statement listed on the FAQ:
"You should only ...
15
Well I'm reversing those decisions because yes, development is very much on-topic here.
To be clear these two examples are borderline generic (there's little to do with Ubuntu here) and I'd welcome people suggesting that the OP might have more luck on Stack Overflow... But closing it as off-topic is incorrect, because it's not.
To address the comments:
...
14
I agree, it seems that the hordes of fans that Ask Ubuntu has sometimes make use of their close votes in a unfair way.
The help section of the site clearly states:
Using and administering Ubuntu, including official Ubuntu derivatives.
Development on Ubuntu.
This does mean that questions like: "How can I do this using Ubuntu with any tool available" and "...
14
I think it's somewhat subjective... but I would like to share my perspective for discussion, even though I am pretty new to the site.
Along with some other folks, I do some cleanup, meaning I spend some of my time on neglected, unanswered, sometimes old and maybe abandoned questions. Mostly, we find that they have good, or good-enough-to-edit-into-shape, ...
13
There's certainly no question about propriety. If your question should be closed, it probably should be closed. But there are a few options:
Delete. If you completely messed up and your question was a problem caused by you, and it's never going to be useful to anybody else, you could nuke it.
Answer it yourself. I've actually had pebcak issues that I've ...
13
I think it is better to keep such questions if they meet our quality standards. But we should include a warning message
This version is no longer supported; you have to upgrade your Ubuntu to get critical security updates
One of the main issues is lack of support from the community, because most of them use supported versions of Ubuntu, but this is not ...
12
You did the right thing. The FAQ is as clear as it can get on this point. If the user has the same issue/question regarding Ubuntu, then he can edit it and ask to get it reopened!
It's good that you flagged it and commented. Higher reputation users and moderators will have a look at it too before it's closed, so don't worry about it.
And it can take a ...
12
People trying to scramble onto a supported release should be given all the help we can muster.
We shouldn't be closing them (as OT-EOL)
The parenthesis there is just to indicate that they could still be closed for other legitimate reasons. They might be an exact duplicate of an existing problem, or the quality might be far too low (and it slipped through ...
12
I edited the ros tag to make it easier to understand, and I edited these other framework tags: tinyos, katoolin and zend.
I will try to implement any requests for improvements in framework tags, since they may still require additional attention. Comment if you have a suggestion regarding a framework tag.
11
j-johan-edwards pointed out a very important drawback to keeping these questions open and answering them:
"What about the threat that Google will point people to "old version" problems (ie the Can I Delete Parts Of The Internet problem) and they will apply counter-productive "old version" solutions?"
I believe I have the answer that will solve this ...
11
If you still want to know the answer to something to a valid question and can maintain the question (keep up with comments/edits), there's no reason to close the question.
In my opinion this isn't a bug report, it's asking for a way to disable xrandr from doing something, and you're perfectly active with it so it's fine.
In terms of going forward:
A ...
11
Your post was closed because it's a long standing policy that we just can't assist with "Ubuntu Paid services" (we're just a community of users who support each other with the occasional Canonical team contributing to their areas of expertise). This isn't explicitly stated in the FAQ because we don't get many of them I can recall 10 in the past two years. As ...
11
Let's consider the following statements:
Bugs that aren't reported are unlikely to be fixed
Developers aren't checking Ask Ubuntu for bug reports
You're talking as if Launchpad and Ask Ubuntu users are these two completely separate user bases. But with the odd exception, we're Ubuntu users. The conversation isn't really about what's best for somebody ...
11
I think if you just changed the title of the question to "Why does launching an application via gksu not work?" or similar and then keep the body as an example would make the question immediately more generic and reuseable.
10
Rationale for Closing
Questions that say they are not about Ubuntu, by saying they are about how to do something on a non-Ubuntu OS, or in any other way, are closed as off-topic.
Lots of information that's off-topic for this site is potentially useful to Ubuntu users. Information about hardware repair is potentially useful to Ubuntu users. Information ...
10
If "Abandoned" doesn't become a separate close-reason, we don't have to define it at all:
This question is unlikely to ever help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. See the FAQ.
A ...
10
We can enable more close reasons, but we are trying to hold off on doing that unless there's a demonstrated need because long lists have historically proven to be, at best, confusing.
At the same time, we certainly recognize that some sites have different needs. For example, Stack Overflow already has 5 off-topic reasons instead of 3.
What other close ...
10
IMHO such questions can be reopened if they are about something that is reproducible in the released version. I voted to reopen the question you linked to. The fact that you got upvotes for your answer subsequent to the release suggests that the material remains useful so should probably be maintained.
Note that closed as off-topic questions with no upvotes ...
9
If you're no longer interested in an answer to the question just leave a comment stating just that. Then flag the question to be closed as "Too Localized" and a moderator will come by and review it.
9
You appear to be asking multiple questions in one question, the way this site works is to have one question per post (so that you can accept one answer as being the best one). In order for this to work questions need to be posted separately.
I ends up you're asking something things that have been asked before and already have answers for on this site, that'...
9
Note: This answer now also exists as separate feature request here on meta.askubuntu.com.
Further updates and discussion should take place over there.
If you like this answer, please make sure you also upvote the linked question. Thanks!
I have a completely different suggestion.
What about rewording the banner to something like
This is not about Ubuntu. ...
9
Only close if there is a good reason. Don't just close bad questions - that's what downvoting is for
No, that kind of questions shall be shot on sight.
It's a homework programming question.
Homework questions are ok (at least IMO) when:
They're explained well enough. That's the bare minimum for any question. Otherwise, close as "unclear what you're asking". That question barely meets this requirement doesn't meet this requirement at all.
It's clear that ...
9
Some examples would be useful, but I must say I don't really share your concern on this. I don't see many off-topic questions answered here.
At the same time, I do see quite some questions marked off-topic incorrectly. There seems to be a tendency to close-vote on trigger words like bug or the current +1 release, while the issue in the question has nothing ...
9
Unless I am missing an essential part I have to disagree with @Zanna in this special case.
The "original" question is not only about upgrading but also about problems to install software within the EOL release. And Aditya's answer talks exactly about this.
I recently have seen several questions with the "cannot install/update" problem in EOL releases. IMO ...
8
We can and we do.
In this case I was in the middle of contacting the mods on the other site to see if they wish to take it. We tend to close – ask – and then migrate if necessary.
There is a judgment call as to what is "good to migrate" and what is "not good to migrate". Ask Ubuntu mods cannot generally make this call unless they have some expertise.
...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
