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Please bear with me. I'm asking this because I'm got an edit ban because several of my lasts suggested edits were rejected. I'm guessing that people don't want that be removed from newer questions despite this tag usage guidelines says that it's for questions about a deprecated Google Drive installable client that it's not working anymore. Anyway, my edit ban is not the focus of this question, I'm just mentioned it as context of why I'm asking instead of suggesting an edit.

Opening local document files in Google Docs (deleted, require rep +10k, https://archive.is/xELWu h/t JourneyMan Geek) was shown in the related links while viewing a recent question. This question is from December 11, 2009. The title says "Google Docs" but the product that was called not longer exists. Again, I not searching for / digging into old questions this was shown by the system as a related question in a recently posted question.

This product, Google Docs from 2009, was replaced by Google Drive and Google Docs in 2012. Nowadays Google Drive is for file storage and Google Docs for and document processing application.

One possible change is to edit the question title to "Opening local document files in Google Drive" but the content is about using making Google Chrome to open local files "straight" in "Google Docs".

This question has three answers, all of them are obsolete.

It has . This tag nowadays doesn't make sense as the current Google Docs products is doesn't include a general document viewer, it only works for docx and Google Docs files (Google own file format for document processor files).

I think that this question should be closed as off-topic, even it's not completely off-topic as it about using Google Chrome and the current answer might require Chrome extensions, but it's not a really good question. Or it's according to Super User current standards?

P.S. I might be interesting to know why this question was not migrated to Web Applications when other questions where migrated. The question history timeline doesn't include migration records, actually it's surprinsingly too short for being a question from the Super User 1st year.

Related


A bit of History

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  • "This questions is from 2009" - 13 years ago. WebApps graduated in 2011. No reason to migrate to a beta site ...
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Apr 16, 2023 at 8:12
  • WebApps graduated on Sept 30, 2010 :) a lot of question were migrated from Super User to WebApps. This was before the current migration policy was set that doesn't allow to migrate old posts.
    – user152004
    Apr 16, 2023 at 8:14
  • 1
    Only @studiohack is still around from 2010.
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Apr 16, 2023 at 8:20
  • And I don't think any of us remember specific site things from 2010, unless it was super fun
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Apr 16, 2023 at 11:03
  • archive.is/xELWu archived version of the original post for refernce
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Apr 16, 2023 at 11:09

1 Answer 1

0

What to do with obsolete answers/questions is a bit of a tricky thing. I do recall its one of the hard problems of the network and frankly it is very tricky thing to deal with.

This question has three answers, all of them are obsolete.

I really don't suggest doing so in bulk but flagging such questions as you come across them for attention is a good idea.

Considering quite some meta posts get lost and forgotten, if you've got the time/energy, its worth considering bringing up the issue again.

Its a lot to ask for but its also useful if its needed in bulk to have a listing of the posts on hand - if you're looking through these anyway. If its a post that needs to go, editing after deletion would not obviously bump it, and it gives an opportunity for discussion and review in 'the open'.

I think that this question should be closed as off-topic, even it's not completely off-topic as it about using Google Chrome and the current answer might require Chrome extensions, but it's not a really good question. Or it's according to Super User current standards?

Its not a great question - but standard evolve and it seems unfair to penalise someone based on 'we changed the rules'. Frankly it even asks for a process and not a product, the way we prefer now and its neither OP's fault nor the answerers that google has the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high.

I'd argue that the question is unlikely to fit any of the current criteria for closure - and its only 'issue' is the product it is about is obsolete.

Since its about some form of native desktop access, it is also on topic

I also feel that downvoting answers correct at the time of posting is fairly unfair. Since reputation post older than 60 days with a score of +3 that's deleted is retained, there's some cases where it would cause a bigger effect than the single downvote if it dips to +2 and is deleted. The answer was correct when it was posted after all, and found useful at the time.

I'd consider two options - a custom closure explaining that the product is no longer available and a careful considered review and pruning of the tag - no more than a few tag edits a day, and honestly with the old tag cleanups we did, we had a lot of trouble helping folks get suggested edits through - and if its a planned/community sanctioned clean up, including that in the edit reason like "cleaning up the as per " would help.

I'd note I spent about... 2 years clearing up a tag, 2-3 edits a day over lunch breaks, so this is a marathon not a sprint, and nothing gets folks in trouble faster than being too enthusiastic about things like this.

The other is to simply delete these questions. If the majority of the answers are broken, or the product is gone, this is an option. Maybe both in this case. We'll need to review the tag in question and its posts for specific cases.

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  • "google has the attention span of a toddler on a sugar high" This might be the top and unbeatable argument to consolidate the Google Drive tags related to installable clients of this product.
    – user152004
    Apr 16, 2023 at 17:10
  • I haven't specifically looked for old posts in the any main site just for the sake of finding obsolete posts / non working answers to downvote and criticize, , and I don't have any intention to do it,. Usually old posts get my attention when they are shown as suggested i.e. flagging for a duplicate, in the related question panel or referred by a recent post (the related panel might require some tunning if it's not worthy to look to "very old" posts, i.e. from 2009).
    – user152004
    Apr 16, 2023 at 17:22
  • Regarding bulk handling questions tagged with google-docs, rough estimate of the number of question to handle is 51. This number comes from created:..2012 [google-docs] is:question closed:0. I think that it's not worthy to ask CM/Staff to run bulk update.
    – user152004
    Apr 16, 2023 at 17:59

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