10

Meta is way more affected by time than the other sites. There are a lot of questions that are not useful anymore (example).

Should we close them as too localized?
It seems correct according to the definition:

too localized
This question would only be relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet.

We could let them undeleted for a sense of history, but I see no reason for them to remain opened.

Thoughts?

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    Why bother? What's so bad about open questions that are old and no longer looked at?
    – Earlz
    Commented May 10, 2010 at 19:45
  • 6
    Because it's cleaner @ear
    – juan
    Commented May 10, 2010 at 19:47
  • And we have to be CLEAN! (Just read Give Me Liberty (Frank Miller, Dave Gibbons) again... blame the Surgeon General ;-))
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Commented Jun 9, 2011 at 12:17

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
-2

Most of these, unless they have specific reasons to remain (eg they contain useful and not confusing and now historically irrelevant (or, worse, wrong) information) should be deleted.

So I vote, flag them for mod attention with the text "candidate for deletion?"

Improve this answer
3
  • 2
    I agree, but even if these questions contain useful information, they probably should have the best answers added to the FAQ in some way (if the topic isn't covered already) and be deleted, instead of keeping them around as quasi-duplicates.
    – Jon Seigel
    Commented May 12, 2010 at 2:37
  • maybe there should be a more public way to handle this. See e.g. this question: It has no value for future generations and the OP got his solution; however, just wordlessly deleting it may put off the OP (he's new) and the top answerer. I mod-flagged it as a candidate for deletion but I don't think this is the optimal way to go
    – Pekka
    Commented Jan 29, 2011 at 12:36
  • 1
    @Eat "this question" has been deleted, so it's a perfect example for not deleting it: your comment doesn't make much sense without the question's text.
    – Jürgen A. Erhard
    Commented Aug 20, 2011 at 23:13
3

I was thinking about this when I finished up the DevDays retagging the other day.

There were a few really time-sensitive questions that have zero relevance now (i.e., "I can't go to DevDays, does anyone want to buy my ticket?"). It's really just noise now.

At the very least, I think specific questions like that should be closed if they've been solved (which is highly likely).

Improve this answer
1
  • yeah the "noise" should be flagged for deletion
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented May 12, 2010 at 2:44
3

Repository of questions that are too localized (add your own/edit as questions get closed).

(None right now.)

Big thanks to @Random for closing most of these with his super-duper awesomely awesome mod powers.

Improve this answer
4
  • I just put in my 12 votes for today. I'll come back tomorrow for some more.
    – Tyler Carter
    Commented May 11, 2010 at 3:35
  • 1
    @Chacha: I think a mod dropped by and took care of a lot of the original ones (most of them appear to be deleted now).
    – Jon Seigel
    Commented May 11, 2010 at 3:36
  • Alternatively you could say the other mods chose to keep that last batch open while random was off closing questions on SU.
    – random
    Commented May 12, 2010 at 0:54
  • 1
    it's true that @random is kind of awesome
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented May 12, 2010 at 2:43
3

Not Necessarily!

IF they're truly not relevant (i.e. real old), like old DevDays questions then they should be closed and left for historical purposes.

If they're not relevant because the Team disagrees with the discussion, then once the discussion is not active anymore, they can be closed and left for historical purposes.

Closing takes care of all non-relevant situations.

Deletions should be used for offensive, spam or completely off-topic questions (like programming questions on Meta).

What's a Community without History?

Improve this answer
2

There used to be a close reason of No longer relevant. It was very useful for exactly this situation, especially in meta. I wish we had it back. This is going to become more of an issue as time passes, especially in meta and Super User.

Of the choices, "Closed as too localized" is your best option.

This was discussed here: What happened to close reason “no longer relevant”?

Improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .