What close reason to use for "Unable to Reproduce"?

Question

Stack Overflow has a close reason used when a problem no longer exists. The reason is Unable to Reproduce. Unable to Reproduce covers things like fixing typos and minor mis-configurations.

I've noticed several questions a day on Super User follow the same pattern. For example, the author of When adding google account I get 0x80004005 as an error states in the comments, "I had to disable Antibot becon to add my account. Thanks for helping." Another example is Apache2 Web Server always serves HTTP even though I only have SSL set up.

My question is, what is the Super User equivalent to Stack Overflow's Unable to Reproduce? Or should we use a custom close reason? Or maybe something else?

Answer 1

There are a couple of options depending on the nature of the 'resolution'

You can enter a custom reason when voting to close

Voting → Other (add a comment explaining what is wrong)

Which gives you the option:

Some folks like to VTC with a custom reason (as above), because it gives them free text to describe why the question should be closed, eg:

I am voting to close this because OP has rebooted and the issue no longer occurs

You could add what OP did as an answer

In the case where OP chimes in with a comment saying "I did XYZ to solve my problem", or "@person_who_suggested_doing_ABC that worked, thanks!"

While OP - or the person who made a suggestion - should ideally add an answer themselves if they have solved their problem, if they don't there is nothing stopping you adding what OP did to resolve their problem.

In the case you suggested, this would be reasonable- as long as it's a complete, self-standing answer in its own right.

Answer 2

My question is, what is the Super User equivalent to Stack Overflow's Unable to Reproduce? Or should we use a custom close reason? Or maybe something else?

While I appreciate the specificity of bertieb’s answer, I believe there is no need for a custom reason. In my humble opinion the SuperUser equivalent reason to close something that falls into the “Unable to Reproduce” category is simply… “Too Broad”:

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question.

Now this explanation might not seem like it would fit “Unable to Reproduce” as a reason here, but it really is. If you cannot reproduce a systems debugging issue here, the reason is “Too Broad” since there are too many factors at play that could have created the issue. While the advice says, “Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.” sometimes what is posted is the best information available… But that information is still not something that can help anyone here reproduce the issue.