Frequent Questions
967 questions
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How do I ask a question that may require recommending software?
I have a problem that I need solved, and it may require the recommendation of software. How do I ask these type of questions so that they aren't closed?
Note: This is for reference to point users ...
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Manufacturer & Company tags are back. Again
We don't like company-only tags, and there's been various crusades in the past to purge them:
Can we get rid of the company tags?
Company tag necromancy: The zombie apocalypse!
What should the [...
82
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4
answers
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How do I recommend software in my answers?
I have a piece of software that I would like to recommend as a solution to problems. I'm trying to avoid answering with "link only" answers, and so I need help on how I can answer valid ...
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Update the FAQ to disallow any product recommendation questions
Foreword added at +2/-1:
To make this clear: As far as I can tell (and I quote a diamond moderator below), this is already official moderation policy on this site. I just want to have this added ...
Daniel BeckMod
- 111k
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How do I log out of this site?
I accidentally created a user when trying to log in, and now I can't find how to log out... I can't find a logout button. So how do I log out?
Here is some extra text because it won't let me post ...
user517312
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Since when are software recommendations off-topic?
I want to take discussion away from Daniel's previous post.
Here's my point: I've always been under the impression that software-recommendations were absolutely fine on Super User.* Now, obviously, ...
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When is an answer eligible to be flagged as "not an answer"? What to do?
When I am flagging answers I read
This was posted as an answer, but it does not answer the question. It should possibly be an edit, a comment, another question, or deleted altogether.
This is very ...
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Old monthly tag cleanups [closed]
This post is no longer active. It is preserved for historical reasons only. For more info on our new tag cleanup procedure, see:
Help us clean up tags!
A new way to clean up tags
The following tags ...
55
votes
4
answers
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Please vote on proposed changes to our policy on tablet computers
We recently asked how you feel about questions regarding Windows 8 on ARM. After looking through the answers and comments there, and some lengthy discussion amongst the moderators, we've come up with ...
26
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Is it okay to inform users to stop promoting Apple.SE when a question is fine to stay here?
Now that we see a quite large amount of OS X Lion questions here on Super User, I've seen people telling the OP to go to ask on Ask Different.
Of course, the folks at Ask Different want their site ...
- 232k
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Is discussion of techniques for removing DRM permitted?
I just asked a question about how to remove DRM from Kindle books that I had purchased and it was promptly closed by the moderator studiohack with the following comment:
We don't encourage this ...
- 1,661
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Are "Hackintosh" questions allowed?
I've seen questions about pirating software down voted and closed. I'm wondering if Hackintosh questions are also disallowed? If so, why?
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Recommendations for the BEST?
Going through @Gareth's list of candidates for closing, I find several topics that are asking about the best X, with X being software.
We're usually pretty liberal with product recommendations if it'...
Daniel BeckMod
- 111k
10
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2
answers
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Migrating questions to the Ubuntu or Linux/Unix Stack Exchange sites
I just realised that there are Stack Exchange sites for Ubuntu and Linux/Unix.
Why aren't all the Linux/Unix/Debian etc questions on Super User getting migrated there?
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27
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Design flaw in the review audit system
My question is a little different from this previous Meta question: Commenting on a high quality audit.
A high-quality question was masqueraded as a new question. All of the previous comments and ...
- 27.8k
18
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Company tag necromancy: The zombie apocalypse!
Just when we thought we finally got rid of them all they appear to have been resurrected.
adobe x 200 — about 100 software and service products, PDF, Flash, Flex, graphics and video editing, web ...
Daniel BeckMod
- 111k
11
votes
1
answer
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Should the original intent of a question be broadened to make the answers more canonical?
A question about Markdown editors with live preview is specific to Mac OS X, but several other answers, including mine, discuss applications that run on other operating systems.
Is it appropriate to ...
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When should questions be moved to AskDifferent/AskUbuntu/...?
I read this question, which helped, but where is the line?
Just because a question is about an Apple product, doesn't mean it is off-topic (not at all actually) just because another (more specific) ...
- 88.4k
256
votes
1
answer
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How should my flagging change when I gain the ability to vote to close?
My rep is going to reach 3,000 soon (2,987 at the time of this post), so I should be able to vote to close soon. How should my flagging habits change when I gain this ability? What should I do when ...
- 46.4k
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votes
4
answers
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We have bad question closing habits
Not all of us and not all the time, of course, and I'm sometimes guilty of this too. I don't want to point the finger at anyone - just discuss what I think is a problem and how we can improve. The ...
- 57.9k
26
votes
8
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Rat's nest of tags
Raystafarian recently posted a number of tag cleanup requests:
Be done with [gtd]
What to do with [to-do]
It's time we managed [time-management]
and a tag synonym request: Tag Synonym request: [tag:...
- 27.8k
10
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How literally does SU take "not about a shopping or buying recommendation"?
I fully support the clause of the SU FAQ that states that shopping/buying recommendations are off-topic. I'm a little confused about its scope, though.
Does it apply to questions that ask people to ...
- 8,553
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Help create and maintain community FAQs!
Joel's recently blogged regarding wikifying question on several recurring topics where users keep asking new versions of the same problem.
Some of these are:
anti-virus software and cleaning them ...
72
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Where can I ask questions that aren't Super User questions?
Thank you for your confidence in our abilities!
But have you read our FAQ?
We get a lot of non computer related questions on here.
Yes, someone here might be able to help you, but you'll find that ...
51
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15
answers
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Super User website applications policy
I recently asked this question on Super User, and a big discussion arose on appropriate questions. The issue came down to the new verbiage in the FAQ:
I had figured that the websites line was just ...
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Do we care about edit flooding? Should we be doing anything?
Edit flooding is the term I'm using for when a single user (or small group of users) perform a lot of edits in a small space of time and effectively take over the front page - pushing a lot of new ...
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Community Promotion Ads - 2012 [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Community Promotion Ads - 2013
We're opening up the new Community Promotion Ads for Super User, in time for the upcoming year! As well, we're also changing the cycle system - ...
20
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3
answers
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Are batch script questions allowed on Super User?
Yes, it's nearly a dupe:
Is batch script help allowed on superuser?
Preferred location for "shell scripting" questions
I've also read Inconsistent Mod response to migrating Excel ...
- 25.4k
18
votes
3
answers
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What will happen to the Windows-8-Preview tag once Windows 8 goes live?
We currently have 385 questions tagged with windows-8-preview and looking towards the impending release of Windows 8 I am wondering what will happen to the -preview tag.
I guess that we will have a ...
MokubaiMod
- 94.7k
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Should Tablet Computer questions be allowed on Super User? [duplicate]
The current policy by community consensus is:
Allow appropriate tablet questions, but not actively encourage iOS and Android. Basically they will be treated like Ubuntu and OS X are treated right now.
...
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I think SU has a newbie-biting problem
I was initially going to post this as an answer to Why do certain commenters take a rude tone with new users?, but I think there's a bigger problem here that requires more discussion.
Let's ignore the ...
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Superuser vs Unix/Linux vs Ubuntu
If I have a question about Ubuntu, I now have 3 places I could take it to:
https://superuser.com/
https://unix.stackexchange.com/
https://askubuntu.com/
It seems to me that Ubuntu is a subset of ...
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Can we please standardize the Microsoft tags?
Tags for Microsoft products are currently a mess.
Office:
office, microsoft-office
office-2007, office-2010, office-2010-beta, ms-office-2007, office-2008, microsoft-office-2010, office-2010, office-...
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Preferred location for "shell scripting" questions
On Super User, many questions are about "shell scripting" - Unix sh and bash, Windows cmd.exe. Should they stay on SU or be migrated to Stack Overflow as "programming"? IMO, bash can be called "...
- 481k
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How is the term "Computer" defined on Super User?
The arguments over whether a tablet counts as a computer this rather lovely Ars Technica article on why they think a tablet is a PC as well as a chat conversation over this question got me thinking ...
- 132k
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Apple.SE as off-topic migration path
Update (2013-09)
Given that this seems to come up every other month or so, here's an update. Current migration stats (2013-09-08), not counting rejected migrations, are as follows:
Web Apps (68) *
...
Daniel BeckMod
- 111k
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votes
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Should we have a sub-tag for beta/RC?
Something I was wondering about when coming across older win 7 RC and beta questions - In many cases bugs are specific to dev versions, or involve the newness of them. With the win8-dev-preview ...
- 132k
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Is bumping a question OK?
Is it OK to bump a question that received not enough attention (tumbleweed candidate) to the top using an edit?
If so under which circumstances?
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Should older questions be flagged as duplicates of more recent ones if those have better answers?
For example, How to access the system tray using the keyboard? has been flagged as a duplicate of How to access (or switch between) tray icons with shortcut in windows?. The former one has been asked ...
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The msi tag is ambiguous
Currently we have the msi tag which (according to the description) is supposed to be used for tagging questions about Windows .msi installer files. However, there are quite a few questions (about a ...
- 11.5k
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It annoys me that there's an Apple SE but so many Apple questions on SU
Stack Exchange management wrote a big post about why it makes sense to spin off some topics or areas into their own stack sites. If I have an Ubuntu question, it would make sense to ask it in the ...
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How are we going to deal with Windows 8 on ARM?
Just to get this discussion going, before the product actually launches and we have to make hasty decisions. As a reference, here's the previous discussion:
Should Tablet Computer questions be allowed ...
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Help us clean up tags!
Tags on Super User are meant to categorize posts to help people with specific expertise or interests to quickly discover posts that are relevant to them.
Over time we've collected quite a few ...
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In defense of obscure, niche hardware recommendation questions
I see that
https://superuser.com/questions/27891/keyboard-mouse-to-use-for-a-htpc-dedicated-to-the-tv
was closed.
While I don't totally disagree -- it is superficially similar to a shopping ...
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Help us clean up Super User
Waaaay back in the early days of Stack Overflow Jeff wrote a blog post about the Stack Overflow Question Lifecycle.
Who decides what questions don’t fit? Trusted members of the Stack
Overflow ...
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Could we finally get rid of [software-rec]?
I know that this has been covered before (for example here), but communities evolve constantly and our current view on this matter can be different.
In my humble opinion, software-rec should be ...
- 57.9k
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Suggestions for updating our FAQ
Based on the results of the vote for a change of policy we've drawn the conclusion that the majority of the users (who voted) are in favor of allowing appropriate tablet questions.
So the new policy ...
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Actually changing things through Meta
We have four principal categories of topics on Meta, with some overlap:
Bug: The site just doesn't work
Feature request: I want to have new shiny things
Support: How does this work?
Discussion: What ...
Daniel BeckMod
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Super User mid 2012 tag/question cleanup [closed]
During my course of reviewing, editing & general janitorial cleanup, I ran into a few tags that were pretty much useless. Since there's too much for me to take action up, I'm posting the list here....
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Why is looking for alternative programs "not constructive"?
Background
I had asked this question a while back, and received some great responses, and a great final answer that helped me out quite a ton. Everything was fine until ~yesterday.
Yesterday, however, ...
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