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I came to ask the question why the mobile site has no "Page not Found" page, and I found it had been asked two years ago, and had no answers: Design “Page Not Found” page for Mobile

In attempting to be diligent, I followed bullet #1 in the answer for Getting attention for unanswered questions? which was

You can "bump" your thread by editing the question to provide status and progress updates resulting from your own continued efforts to answer the question yourself

My own effort to answer the question led me to the aforementioned two-year-old, unanswered question... so I posted my "status and progress updates", stating in my edits UPDATE: This is still a valid question. Any status update? Is this page going to have a mobile version? <!-- Bumping per https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7046/how-do-i-get-attention-for-old-unanswered-questions -->

I realize that is a puny edit, but was just trying to bump in accordance with that answer ... but it was declined.

Why? Was this the wrong approach? What would be the correct way?

|improve this question
  • It says 'your question' – Mhmd Feb 20 '14 at 5:33
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    It says: You can "bump" your thread. – hjpotter92 Feb 20 '14 at 5:33
  • Yes... but also don't reask. And I don't want to offer bounty. So no other recourse... I don't see difference whether it is my question or not. Just guessing that is was phrased like that because OP was talking about his own question. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 5:34
  • @hjpotter92 otherwise I would think the standard would be "users can bump own question but others must offer bounty." Is that correct? – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 5:38
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    You don't seem to have anything to add to the question, that's why it is rejected. It doesn't matter whether it is your question or someone else's question. You shouldn't just say bump. You should only edit if you can add something useful to the discussion. – Antony Feb 20 '14 at 5:41
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    That still doesn't improve the question. – Aaron Bertrand Feb 20 '14 at 5:46
  • This is now properly bumped with valid edit. – Shadow The Princess Wizard Feb 20 '14 at 10:37
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Yes, this was the wrong approach. See this answer from Bill the Lizard (emphasis mine):

If you want to bump an unanswered question that's fine. That's a feature. Just make sure your edit improves the question in some measurable way. ... Very frequent bumping with no visible change to the question will probably result in it getting flagged and locked.

Putting an HTML comment that you've bumped the question for the wrong reasons results directly in "no visible change" and certainly does not "improve the question."

So, that leaves the bounty. If you don't care enough about getting a 404 page for mobile, then maybe it's not that important...

Or, you could answer the question, describing why you think a 404 page is needed for mobile, and/or possibly suggesting how it could be implemented. That will make the question pop onto the active tab, at least for a brief moment.

|improve this answer
  • ... how is that the wrong approach then, if If you want to bump an unanswered question that's fine. I don't think once in 2 years is two frequent. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 5:41
  • @MikeSmithDev Did you read the rest? Do I need to repeat it in a comment? Just make sure your edit improves the question... how did your HTML comment improve the question? – Aaron Bertrand Feb 20 '14 at 5:43
  • It wasn't just an html comment. Was seeking if there were any updates or plans. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 5:46
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    @MikeSmithDev How does that improve the question? If I edit in my own <aol>me too!</aol> does that also improve the question? No! – Aaron Bertrand Feb 20 '14 at 5:47
  • Again... it was done in reference to the post I quoted "provide status and progress updates resulting from your own continued efforts to answer the question yourself. " Granted the status was just finding out it was the same as 2 years ago. It wasn't done in the scope of the answer your quoted. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 5:50
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    @MikeSmithDev Asking for status of a question is not the same thing as posting updates to the question that contain actual status changes. – Aaron Bertrand Feb 20 '14 at 5:51
  • I accepted this answer as I agree with your last paragraph and guess in this case that would have been the best course of action. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 6:21
  • @MikeSmithDev just telling in case you don't know, vote works differently in meta. Downvote can also mean disagreement with your approach/idea. I think most of the downvote pointed to how you tried to bump the question without improvement. – Meta Andrew T. Feb 20 '14 at 6:27
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    Yeah I know... But asking questions to get clarification on best practices and losing rep instead is just a downer. :) especially when other questions on the topic are all +. Guess I just need to learn how to ask here. Thanks for feedback tho. – MikeSmithDev Feb 20 '14 at 6:30

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