20
Each site can have 4 custom close reasons, as Thomas explained, and on Unix & Linux, we have added a reason for cross posting. So the strange thing isn't that AU doesn't have the reason, but that U&L does.
For reasons that have never been clear to me, the U&L community is particularly sensitive to cross posts. So much so, that we implemented a ...
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. Don'...
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, ...
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 the ...
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.
12
We can only have 4 custom close reasons, and to my knowledge, crossposting doesn't come up enough to make it worthy of a close reason for itself.
11
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 ...
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.
11
IMO these should be closed for multiple reasons:
consumer hardware changes too quickly and has too many minor variations for the answers to have any lasting value. Same problem with shopping recommendations.
the answers are far going to be far too opinion-based. One user's priorities need not be the same as another's.
the question is far too broad. If a ...
10
The first rule of any IT manager working in the field is "If it works - don't touch it". Suppose I have server running on Hardy and it works, and I know all security flaws found since are not affecting me. Then I would not upgrade it only because Ubuntu creators think I should. I would want to stick to it until it breaks.
The useless question on EOL ...
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 ...
9
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
Do nothing. As long as it seems like a suitable answer we leave it alone.
This said, if the post is spammy, not related, or similar then we address it. Otherwise, we leave the questions be - no need to touch something that's not really 'broken'.
8
Rejecting these as spam trains the spam filter, which very quickly keeps them out. It's very rare that the same spam network only targets one of our sites; those that hit Ask Ubuntu also tend to hit Magento and Stack Overflow, the sites all use the same spam data, so all benefit from the actions that everyone takes.
What you might see, depending on the ...
8
All of them and more:
Who can answer any and every questions of this? Who are the "experts"?
Are possible canonical answers? Wouldn't they are be too specific for that piece of hardware?
Just how many questions are possible about this? To be an authoritative site we would need a question about each piece of hardware, and this would bury other questions that ...
8
Yes! I think this is a great idea. Way too many perfectly valid questions are being closed by trigger happy reviewers simply because the OP happens to be using an older or newer version than we'd like. I think what you're proposing makes a lot of sense since it is just a tiny shift in emphasis and will make the intended scope of the close reasons clearer.
...
8
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.
...
8
You're misinterpreting the Help Center information.
Firstly, 18.04 is offtopic as it is in development and not yet 'stable'. That's the first and foremost issue with the question you've linked.
We are also not a bug reporting site. Yes, we're here for developers' questions - more specifically, questions about developing on Ubuntu. But that doesn't extend ...
8
Invoking the great powers of JNat, this issue has been resolved smoothly. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.
8
It does occasionally matter though... Even if it doesn't in this case.
The people initially involved in the question might not know or appreciate the finer details of what's going on. Networking stacks and application firewalls are slowly changing, and I won't be surprised when systemd takes over from iptables/ufw then grub, and bash, ad infinitum. The tools ...
8
status-declined
We have a very limited amount of space for statements in close reasons - if we could fit other OSes there we probably would but we are out of space in that reason's length to do that right now. We have space for only 69 characters more on that close reason - if we expanded to include eOS and others we won't have the space to include them all ...
7
No, accepting an answer has nothing at all to do with closing (putting on hold). Basically, questions that are off topic should always be closed. Irrespective of whether they have an answer. This is for many reasons:
It confuses people. Users will think that the subject is on topic and use the existence of that question to justify that opinion.
When a ...
7
Until/unless this feature request is ever implemented, these are the current options in situations like this.
Comment on the question, warning people in your comment
This alerts others to the potential problem, and is the most immediately visible way of getting your warning to people, because you don't have to wait for a moderator and you don't have to ...
7
Nope, I don't think it's as simple as that.
We have a community of people here who help Ubuntu users do stuff. Often that's highlighted as a "how do I do X" but occasionally that screws down into a language (Bash, Python, etc). This stuff is also on-topic on other sites. That doesn't make it off-topic here.
To be considered off-topic here —in my mind, at ...
7
The question about Katoolin has not been closed, and now it shows that there aren't any close votes. I think the root of the problem is that new users who want ask a question about using Kali Linux tools on Ubuntu search for an appropriate tag, and all they find is kali so they read the kali tag excerpt which says:
Questions that are only about Kali and ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
