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I like Super User, often I have only to write the title of my question on the "Ask Question" page and the answer shows up in the "Related Questions"

Thus I want to keep it great.

Computer hardware questions is always getting outdated and doubly so when price is discussed.

This question got closed as a dupe, but I agree with one of the comments that a dupe from six moths ago is not relevant from a computer-hardware/price question today.

In my opinion it should probably have been allowed or perhaps closed as To Localized instead.

But here is my main question
What should we do about old hardware questions? A search about best/$ Frobnac is bound to be irrelevant afer six months (or even earlier)

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5 Answers 5

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Close them as "No longer relevant"

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    I agree... except this is one case where it wouldn't be fair to remove any rep accrued by the questioner or answerers (as has been proposed, and IMHO is generally a good idea). They were posting in good faith at the time.
    – Ether
    Feb 5, 2010 at 23:04
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    So close, but don't delete. No trouble there.
    – dmckee
    Feb 6, 2010 at 0:02
  • The irony here is that this answer itself is no longer relevant, because that close reason is now gone! Feb 14, 2014 at 21:51
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I like Super User, often I have only to write the title of my question on the "Ask Question" page and the answer shows up in the "Related Questions"

Thus I want to keep it great.

That's great. That's the attitude that makes these sites great.

Computer hardware questions is always getting outdated and doubly so when price is discussed.

I don't think that price should be discussed on SU, as that is too localized for an international audience these sites have.

This question got closed as a dupe, but I agree with one of the comments that a dupe from six moths ago is not relevant from a computer-hardware/price question today.

I think that Is it still cheaper to build your own PC? is a bit more generic. In the last 15 years Roalt's and TheTXI's answers it has been true, and it is likely to continue to be true for some time (IMHO). Also, it's a community wiki question, so anybody can jump in and update it anytime.

In my opinion it should probably have been allowed or perhaps closed as To Localized instead.

I'd have closed as too localized the original, the second one is a tad more generic.

But here is my main question: What should we do about old hardware questions? A search about best/$ Frobnac is bound to be irrelevant afer six months (or even earlier)

Then close as no longer relevant in six months, update it if you have the edit powers, or/and ask it again pointing to the outdated question, letting the community decide the appropriate course of action.

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I say keep them. They may be outdated to you in 6 months, but i promise you someone 2, 3, 4 or more years down the line will have picked up hardware xyz off ebay or still has it running.

Hardware has a surprising ability to stick around for years and years, even after most people have moved on.

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  • SU can be an excellent source of information re using less current equipment/ equipment which isnot any longer supported, yet which is still in use.
    – M H
    Dec 11, 2020 at 10:51
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Ideally speaking, all questions should remain live and constantly updated and kept relevant through edits and new submissions. But that's not reality.

Many technology questions have a limited lifetime. It is simply unlikely that new answers will be add and voted up while older, out-dated answers will be voted down and pushed out of relevance.

[As a side note, this is the very reason we should not encourage localized "what's the best price/technology/etc" questions unless they are posed in the context of an EXTREMELY specific situation.]

It's a tough question and one that will plague Super User sooner than Stack Overflow or Server Fault. I think the best near-term solution is to at least attempt to close older questions as:

[closed -- no longer relevant]

They will remain in the system for archival value and users who answered the questions will not lose the reputation.

Long term...? That's another discussion.

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    "Many technology questions have a limited lifetime.": true, but that limit is far longer than many of us would like. (E.g. 6 year old computers are going to be quite common in homes, many never updated since.)
    – Richard
    Feb 6, 2010 at 11:02
  • E.g. see this SF question: serverfault.com/questions/110157/…
    – Richard
    Feb 6, 2010 at 11:04
  • But "many technology questions" go beyond trouble shooting hardware/software. Consider all the "best of" questions: best price, best technology, best practices, fastest, most reliable... They are often very localized to the time frame they are being asked. Legacy support or not, surely you can see that "Best Laptop for Student?" -type questions will become irrelevant (and blatantly incorrect) in short order. I don't foresee them being kept up to date. Better to be [closed -- no longer relevant]. Those are the questions I am talking about.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Feb 6, 2010 at 14:38
  • If question is localized to the time frame, that time frame should be specifien. No longer relevant is too broad - when it was relevant? In 2012? 2011? A periodized #archive# flag could be the best way. Feb 22, 2013 at 8:27
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Another random opinion, since this doesn't just apply to old hardware, but can apply to software too: rather than close, how about an [archive] tag - a special tag that wouldn't show up in any searches unless it was explicitly included.

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