4

Someone posted this question on SU regarding troubleshooting Ubuntu.

The question needs some editing and was posted as a CW, however looking at it the question becomes to generalised when edited, and effectively becomes a catch all questions for any Ubuntu related problems. I am also struggling with closing it because it doesn't seem fair to close it as not a real question, and the other options aren't really relevant at this stage.

Should we allow these types of questions, or should we insist on their being a specific problem to solve?

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
3

The first part is a "Best tools for.." questions and the last time I visited SU there where many of them (CW hopefully ;). So I don't think that's a problem.

The second part is (more) specific. The system freezes. Yes, he could provide more details, but that is often the case. I don't see a need to close it. Commenting and downvoting if needed should work.

4
  • @John. The moderators and community is working hard on getting rid of these questions as quickly as possible. The existing one's are mainly kept for historical purposes, and there are some truly useful. However the SU audience is very wide, and these questions pop up quickly as ways to try and gain instant reputation. I often have to close duplicates because of this.
    – Diago
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 20:23
  • I agree. And note that it is not uncommon for a user to have a computer issue which is as vague as stated by the OP. Myself I have wondered plenty of times why my laptop froze. There should be a place for these kinds of problems. This question basically allows us to share general troubleshooting techniques.
    – Stephan202
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 20:29
  • 1
    @Diago: define "getting rid": you close them, lock them, delete them? If you delete them, delete the first part of that question, too. The second part is a valid problem, though no valid question yet.
    – Ladybug Killer
    Commented Oct 29, 2009 at 20:33
  • @John This is handled based on the question. If a duplicate it is closed as such.
    – Diago
    Commented Oct 30, 2009 at 9:11
2

This is not a catch-all question, it's very specific: What tools exist for troubleshooting an unstable system?

Catch-All questions have no place in a Q&A site, IMO.

1

Some of those answers do seem to be generally useful.

Having that question left up, may help questioners provide better questions, so I say leave it up.

1

Decided to post my comment on John's post as a separate answer.

It is not uncommon for a user to have a computer issue which is as vague as stated by the OP. Myself I have wondered plenty of times why my laptop froze. There should be a place for these kinds of problems. This question basically allows us to share general troubleshooting techniques.

If we close this question now, eventually another user will pass by with essentially the same open ended question. But this open ended question is a very real question: if Ubuntu freezes for whatever reason, how to I go about finding the cause?

I think this question is on topic and can be answered.

0

I agree that in this state the question is not really useful.

You could either ask for more informations from the original poster,or edit the question asking more or less:

What does your weapon bag contains for bug hunting on linux?

I would go for the second option but it should have been asked already (i haven't checked for duplicate).

0

If the question isn't useful and the OP only asks for widely different things, you should suggest them to break it up to several questions.

There isn't really any good reasons to bunch up questions in one. This is what we have search, tags and your profile page for, right? Right?

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .