40
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?
25
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, ...
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, ...
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 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
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
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 ...
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
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 ...
8
Ok.
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.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
