Questions tagged [old-questions]
For questions about old questions.
181 questions
-10
votes
3
answers
291
views
Warn when Comment or Answer may be inappropriate due to age of Question or OP abandonment
When a very old question is bumped by an SE Bot or by user activity, certain comments or answers are not appropriate. For example, asking a long-gone OP for a clarification or answering a question ...
- 733
-9
votes
1
answer
149
views
Don't bump "dead" questions [duplicate]
Community Bot visits old questions and bumps them so that they can receive answers and hopefully have an accepted answer eventually.
However, many answers are old, and the OP sometimes hasn’t visited ...
- 107
2
votes
0
answers
73
views
What is the correct way to ask help finding an old SE Q&A I can't find anymore? [duplicate]
I am an active member of Sci-Fi and Fantasy SE and I found myself in this situation several times:
I see a question (sometimes answered) that piques my interest.
I read it, mark it down in my memory ...
- 121
-15
votes
1
answer
135
views
Why do questions not get locked after a period of inactivity?
At least in exchanges where "necro-posting" is banned, questions do not get locked after a period of inactivity, and therefore can still have answers and comments added. If moderation ...
- 7
4
votes
4
answers
249
views
Dealing with outdated questions with incorrect answers
I recently came across a baffling, transient issue on one of my systems. It self resolved (or I accidentally fixed it), but I'd documented one of the symptoms of the issue while troubleshooting which ...
- 192k
8
votes
0
answers
119
views
Links to old Google product forums are broken
TL;DR: 3,332 posts from multiple communities have links to productforums.google.com. Source. Apparently all these links are "broken" (they are redirected to the homepage of a community ...
- 16k
-25
votes
2
answers
166
views
Lower reputation requirement for "reopen" privilege [duplicate]
Some questions are closed by mistake and the current procedure for reopening is very... uhm... bureaucratic.
Take a look at this question for example.
We have 170 upvotes (the question clearly has ...
- 69
2
votes
0
answers
46
views
Should outdated "Related" questions be edited to address the overarching problem? [duplicate]
I mainly contribute to ProWebmasters - Google changes all the time and I and notice a ton of questions that the correct answer to which is no longer relevant.
I come across a ton of very old "...
- 161
-7
votes
1
answer
201
views
Can old questions and unaccepted answers be 'cleared' when the OP has been AWOL for several years?
Can't old questions with no accepted answers be 'cleared' when it is obvious there was an acceptable answer? Speaking specifically about the OP's negligence of accepting an answer, or a comment was ...
user728672
3
votes
0
answers
104
views
In flagging dialog, IF "too old to migrate" THEN remove the tip "... or belongs on another Stack Exchange site"
I spotted a question which I think clearly belongs on another site. I tried to flag that, and one of the options was "needs improvement", which includes the situation where
"This ...
- 297
-13
votes
2
answers
149
views
Why should someone edit questions from years (3 to 7 years ago, for example)? [duplicate]
What is the use/help to others in editing questions already answered years ago?
It is happening on a Stack Exchange site, where a user is editing questions with accepted answers from 2015 or even ...
- 100
2
votes
0
answers
61
views
Strategy for old technical questions having obsolete answers [duplicate]
I have seen a lot of old questions with great old answers which are up for new answers as technology has evolved.
One such example would be of answers on Android development. A lot has changed since ...
- 129
47
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How should pronoun-only edits be handled?
Currently there are multiple posts on main page bumped up by edit saying
My pronouns are He / Him
I just answered on one of them before looking at the date it was asked - no changes since 2015 ...
- 2,411
1
vote
2
answers
97
views
Add warning/notice about responding to a long-dead discussion
Occasionally, I get notifications about a comment response, and it seems someone has noticed some question or answer from 3, 5, 10 years ago, and decided to join the "lively" discussion without ...
- 26.9k
8
votes
1
answer
106
views
Moderation for extremely high view count questions
There are many questions asked when stack first begun becoming popular, which deal with somewhat "fundamental" features of a popular language, library or development environment.
The problem with any ...
- 187
13
votes
3
answers
229
views
Should I downvote an answer (no added value) posted on an already well answered questions?
I have noticed that users answer questions that are very old (example, 10 years old) with an answer that is basically the same thing as the accepted answer.
There are users from 2018 answering these ...
- 649
1
vote
2
answers
64
views
How should I treat an old, active question I no longer need answered?
Possible duplicate of: Should I close a question now I have moved jobs and can no longer verify answers?
The question: IllegalStateException - @ComponentScanning a springframework package
I asked a ...
- 121
3
votes
0
answers
42
views
Finding recent information
Just now, I was looking at drill-down on Android. So I googled "drill down android site:stackoverflow.com". The top hits were this and this, both from 2010. The next one was this from 2014. After that,...
- 323
-3
votes
2
answers
102
views
Old answers being downvoted because the solution doesn't apply anymore
Our field is pretty dynamic and things are constantly in change. What the "right way" was to fix a problem in 2009 is completely wrong today. For example, a recipe to install Ruby on Mac OS X from ...
- 134
4
votes
2
answers
89
views
Should I delete some of my old, downvoted questions - having low-positive-vote answers?
I have a couple of questions with a negative (say, -4 or -5) vote score which, with the passage of time and the arrival of wisdom (or apathy perhaps) I no longer feel I should have asked to begin with,...
- 26.9k
7
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Where can I ask a question about where to find an old question?
This question might be a little too META.
I am trying to find a question posted to META some time ago. It was extremely helpful, but I am now unable to find the question by searching for it.
This ...
- 1,294
6
votes
4
answers
111
views
How do I attract attention to a new answer to an old question? [duplicate]
I've answered a question asked several years ago, and my answer is half-contradictory of the accepted answer (which I believe overlooked many things). Not much time has passed yet, but let's assume ...
- 26.9k
6
votes
1
answer
124
views
If there is an old question and I have something to add how should I go about it?
In this case I am talking about this feature request on MSE.
The feature request was last active 2 years ago and 610 people have seen it. I think that this question had too small an impact and I ...
- 249
4
votes
0
answers
58
views
What are the odds of SE implementing an old feature request and what can be done to improve those odds? [duplicate]
I am full of great ideas. Well, OK, full of ideas, some of which might be great. If you squint hard enough. I frequently think up feature requests for SE, because I'm a frequent user.
Sometimes, I ...
- 10.6k
5
votes
3
answers
419
views
How to get a new answer for an old question [duplicate]
Seems like this question should have already been asked on Meta, but I could not find it.
What should we do when the situation changes for an old question that already has an accepted answer?
is ...
- 151
3
votes
1
answer
36
views
Asking for updated answer when original question no longer meets requirements
On Stack Overflow I came across this question which I don't believe would meet the current question requirements, I think it's too broad and off topic.
My issue is that I'd like to get an updated ...
- 616
-4
votes
2
answers
80
views
Should the accepted answerer also be able to change the accepted answer?
Probably one of the largest problems I regularly see with the Stack Exchange model is that most people asking questions don't really understand how the system works. Often questions never get an ...
- 4,460
4
votes
1
answer
62
views
Have the Dialectical Differences shortcoming been fixed in SE's Search Engine?
Basically, it's where differences in spelling, such as letters chosen or diacritics used, are treated as different queries by the Stack Exchange search engine, even if the queries are otherwise ...
- 563
3
votes
1
answer
31
views
Why are the authors of comments on very old meta posts not clickable? [duplicate]
Houston, we (The Taverners) faced a problem today, revisiting this post on meta.SO: What's the joke in the Stack Overflow 404 page code?
The accounts of none of the posters has been removed. Yet . ...
- 8,284
5
votes
1
answer
64
views
"Bouncing" an old question of other user - not enough reputation to comment
I'm new to Stack Overflow (only read till now, that's first time I join to ask), so please correct me if that's not the suitable place to ask this (from what I saw it's the closest to suit).
I ...
- 53
0
votes
1
answer
44
views
Filter out old questions? [duplicate]
I was just looking for whether StackOverflow can be localized somehow or what the current state of development is regarding this topic. But it is difficult to find anything because I get lots of old ...
- 161
9
votes
1
answer
150
views
What does SO do to keep old questions useful? Or: What does SO do to keep the best answers easy to find?
It's a theme of my StackOverflow sessions that I always end up speedreading old solutions to problems, which is great - I can learn a lot that way, it's basically how SO is used by everyone ever, cool ...
- 93
3
votes
1
answer
60
views
'Prepare for Archive' review queue
This feature request is prompted by two recent Meta.Chem.SE posts, dealing with old 'Welcome!' comments left on new posts and with explicit "EDIT:" notations added to questions and answers when edits ...
- 1,414
4
votes
1
answer
354
views
How to handle a question when the given answer is no longer correct?
I occasionally come across a question asking "How do I X in Y?" from several years ago, where the answer marked correct was "You can't, because Y does not have feature X". However, that was a long ...
- 339
7
votes
1
answer
36
views
I can't tell if an answer to my old question is correct
More than two years ago, I've made this programming question on SO. I was struggling with that at work, and didn't know what to do.
Yesterday, it got a new answer.
I don't work in that company ...
- 223
14
votes
1
answer
129
views
Commenting on a 4 year old question to ask for its current validity?
This question received a good answer, 4 years ago. Would it be acceptable to comment on the answer asking whether or not it's still applicable or whether a slightly modification of their given method ...
- 241
6
votes
1
answer
93
views
Close voting and comments that challenge consistency [duplicate]
When I vote to close a question and leave an explanation, a common response is
Here are dozens of older questions that meet the same criteria. Why don't you close all of those?
Should I respond to ...
- 2,723
5
votes
2
answers
103
views
Downvote on outdated answers - desired or counterproductive?
On this question: Is there a legal way to get D&D 5e core rulebook PDFs?
After the OP added a bounty, I noticed the accepted answer was out of date. I decided to edit that in as a note at the top ...
- 293
3
votes
2
answers
105
views
View activity history of a question
Is it possible to add a history view to a question, one that lists all edits (including delete actions if delete contents cannot be displayed), comments, answers in a list, sorted on datetime?
Take ...
- 213
9
votes
2
answers
109
views
Is there a way to promote a brand new answer to an old question crowded with many outdated answers?
I'm talking about very good and old questions (5 years, 80 000 views) with many answers (good and bad ones) but no perfect answer you know.
Ok, nothing special for now.
But... Time goes by and ...
- 191
6
votes
1
answer
71
views
Accepted answer random queue
As a relatively new user here, on my "home" site of Judaism.se there are about 8000+ questions that preceded my arrival there. Sometimes I see questions that pique my interests in the related question ...
- 2,117
2
votes
1
answer
75
views
What should be done with answers that are off topic for the site but on topic for the (old) question?
I came up with this question due to a first post review to which I didn't really know how to handle exactly.
I had to review an answer to an old question that would (most likely) be off topic with ...
- 216
8
votes
2
answers
241
views
Highly-viewed question closed as not constructive after 2 years [duplicate]
I asked this question, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3752988/gcc-vs-ms-c-compiler (10k-only link), Sep 10th, 2010. It was closed Oct 23rd, 2012. How can it be closed two years after the fact? Is ...
- 3,607
3
votes
0
answers
133
views
Why in the World has a Question on Algorithmic Trading Not Been Deleted Yet? [closed]
I just came across "What technical skills needed for algorithmic trading, HFT, etc?" and immediately voted to delete. But that begs the question - why is this question from 2009 still here?
Can we ...
- 15.3k
5
votes
1
answer
152
views
Highly upvoted old questions would be closed immediately if asked today.
I know it was asked many times here and the historical significance should be taken into account in dealing with those questions: some highly upvoted old questions would be closed immediately if asked ...
- 1,364
3
votes
2
answers
186
views
Etiquette, rules, or advice on which site to pose a question? (Or, why are there so many StackExchange sites?)
Basically:
I have a question I want to ask regarding using Apple's AppleScript/Objective-C bridge (Objective C wrapped in AppleScript, basically) to implement an HTML/WebKit-based pager (a drop-in for ...
- 299
5
votes
1
answer
89
views
How to flag historic off topic questions
I just came across this question which is primarily opinion based, which doesn't fit with the current standards of questions on SO.
I understand that this has historic significance, it has some good ...
- 413
3
votes
0
answers
47
views
How do we handle an answer that is no longer accurate? [duplicate]
I'm referring to this question here:
What does it mean to hydrate an object?
At the time this question was answered, back in 2011, the term "Hydration" was new. It is still very young now even, but ...
- 993
5
votes
0
answers
40
views
Community-wikify old question (now irrelevant for me)?
Approximately one year ago I asked a question. This question is not relevant for me anymore since I've stopped using that specific technology.
Since I don't know what to do with this question I'll ...
- 293
3
votes
1
answer
53
views
What to do with questions which have invalid answers after the update?
I was going to use, as an example, this question/answer about where the privileges link lives. Since I've just mentioned it in another question, Anna Lear has edited it to be correct.
The question ...
- 2,240