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I think this has something to do with the recent change regarding close reasons.

Some of the reasons have gone (unintentionally?) missing:

On Super User, I no longer see the "no longer relevant" reason.

And on Meta, there are even only three left, namely "dupe", "not SO related" and "too localized". Where are the others?

Side effect is that questions closed with a now gone reason have no reason at all.

Case in point: a question previously closed as "no longer relevant" doesn't display any reason at all (yes, it was a bogus reason to stop the many spam answers that should now be fixed):

llama does a spit take

Edit: Reverted this back to [bug] as the "empty close reason" is still an issue that needs to be fixed.

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See Jeff's answer here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/15634/… -- that's where "spam" went; "blatantly offensive" is problem going in a similar direction. –  balpha Feb 8 '10 at 10:49
well, "lock" now prevents answers, so w/r/t random's edit, I would lock the question. –  Jeff Atwood Feb 8 '10 at 11:33
The llama might be talking a lock, but here's another superuser.com/questions/53085/keyboard-and-mouse-not-working @jeff –  random Feb 8 '10 at 11:40
In the revision history such as superuser.com/posts/67128/revisions, this shows empty quotes: img.skitch.com/20100208-1et2jkq3fb74iinqgsejh8fmdn.png –  Arjan Feb 8 '10 at 13:51

3 Answers 3

up vote 5 down vote accepted

With regards to SU, I do think there is a need for a proper replacement for no longer relevant, as users often use it to close thier own questions. A more likely replacement could be:

  • Question abandoned. (User has not done any work on question after 3 months and no ability to flag accepted answer)
  • Related to Beta Software (Question was related to a Beta or Prerelease version of software and no longer applies)
  • Known software bug or problem. (Problem or item was listed as a bug, and a new version of software/hardware solved problem. Therefore the question is no longer relevant to the listed problem)

I realise my last point may be the exact reason we need no longer relevant on SU

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"Related to Beta" goes nicely into "Software updated". –  random Feb 8 '10 at 12:23
@random - Better now? Feel free to "intervene". "Intervene!" –  Diago Feb 8 '10 at 12:26
"software updated" is really a more specific case of "fixed indirectly", one of the stock bug resolution reasons used by bugzilla. –  Ether Feb 8 '10 at 20:52
"known software bug or problem" == "too localized" –  Jeff Atwood Feb 8 '10 at 22:30

By design.

We are merging close reasons; there were too many, and they were redundant.

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@Jeff: so, what with the "no longer relevant" troubleshooting questions on SU? –  fretje Feb 8 '10 at 10:52
@fretje - agreed, this one was quite useful on SU. –  Gnoupi Feb 8 '10 at 10:58
how is it no longer relevant? No other user in the world will ever have that problem? If so, then see "too localized" –  Jeff Atwood Feb 8 '10 at 11:00
for reference: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/36296/… –  fretje Feb 8 '10 at 11:00
if this is a troubleshooting situation, then a new user has to create a new question, as he won't have control over the old one, to give feedback. Keeping a question which is "abandoned" opened, is finally blocking a further user from solving his own situation. If the question could have been solved with more feedback, then it's blocked until someone else comes with his own question, his feedback, his details. –  Gnoupi Feb 8 '10 at 11:02

I think it might be due to a change in the close reason ID (assuming that it is an ID of course).

If you look at this question of mine - http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/189/should-there-be-an-option-to-move-questions-between-so-sf-here-and-su-when-it - closed for being an exact duplicate, it has the description.

However, if you look at this question - http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/21612/sites-taking-almost-any-keyboard-input-as-back-button-closed - which was closed as "no longer relevant" (if I remember correctly) doesn't.

Therefore, if the reason ID no longer exists in "reason description" table you'd get the observed behaviour.

Perhaps the old reason descriptions should be kept, but changed to their replacements.

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Closed as "": meta.stackoverflow.com/posts/21612/revisions –  random Feb 8 '10 at 12:38
A string like that is a bug, plain and simple. –  Ether Feb 8 '10 at 21:20

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