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Previous questions have dealt with similar issues:

1. Is there anything we can do about ancient questions being bumped?

Conclusion I: Valueless questions getting repeatedly bumped is a problem. They should be closed.

Conclusion II: It's a good thing that old questions get bumped; maybe someone can find them useful or answer them.

2. What should be done about old, abandoned questions?

Conclusion: Very old, drive-by questions with no lasting value should be closed. Downvoting would also help.

3. Should we close old questions with no more feedback as "no longer relevant", on SuperUser?

Conclusion: Such questions should be closed.

This question:

Excel-matching row order in two spreadsheets

Has been getting bumped every 4 months, apparently:

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It does have an answer - it's not a very good answer (it's not a very good question), but the querent evidently found it helpful - helpful enough to comment, though not helpful enough to mark it accepted.

Does that mean I'm going to see it bubble to the top of the active questions list every 4 months from now on? It's not off topic, and it's not overly broad, it's just not a very helpful question. I don't know that it should be closed for that reason, but I do know that it's not doing anyone any good getting bumped until the end of time. If it can't be closed, can it be marked as answered?

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  • Questions can get bumped if they have no accepted or upvoted answer. I added context to the answer from the author's original comment and upvoted the answer. It still isn't really worthy of an upvote, but it was posted as an answer based on the promise of acceptance and the OP's report that it solved the problem; a small price to stop the bumping, and the thread can now get buried and stay there. :-)
    – fixer1234
    Mar 10, 2020 at 14:42
  • @fixer1234 I didn't realize that nuance. Good idea, thanks - at least now I won't see that particular question again.
    – Alex M
    Mar 10, 2020 at 16:56
  • Upvote the answer or write a new answer. That's the purpose of the bumps, right?
    – Mast
    Mar 11, 2020 at 12:28
  • @Mast apparently so, but I didn't know that (and there's frequently no inherent reason to upvote such answers)
    – Alex M
    Mar 11, 2020 at 16:44
  • The reason (among others) is to make it clearer for passers-by whether the answer is useful or not.
    – Mast
    Mar 11, 2020 at 16:58

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