Arch Linux

bruzorabe

Member

Registered: 2020-01-14

Posts: 2

On the preferred way for updating unanswered topics

Hi everyone.

Considering I have begun to post here just yesterday, I would like to know what's the preferred way for an OP to update a currently unanswered topic of theirs. I'm thinking of topics whose context, after further research or experimentation, might have had any relevant developments before anyone else wrote a reply to them. The topic in question is this one.

I want to provide new information that I came up with. It's the precise kind of information that I was expecting to get from other users, even though I'm still far from settling the issue (which is a somewhat layered installation with a lot of opportunities for badly tuned parameters to wrench it, just like what happened with its previous deployment). I could:

1. Edit the original post and add this new information after an appended "edit" mark;

2. Share the new developments in a follow-up post;

3. Do as in a) but also prepend some kind of tag (like "[updated]") to the topic title.

I'm trying to strike a balance between mindlessly bumping a topic and making it clear it is being developed.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,330

Website

Re: On the preferred way for updating unanswered topics

I'd say take your pick.  If you are taking the time to even think about the pros and cons (including the impact on the community) then regardless of your choice you'll certainly be within the "spirit of the law" of our community guidelines.

Personally, I'd generally suggest A or C.  B could be seen as going against our guidelines (power posting or bumping), though if a bit of time has past and you really have new information it wouldn't actually be power posting or (inappropriate) bumping, so in many cases B would be fine to.  Just avoid repeating B many times on the same thread which I'm sure you would do given you are already considering the balance to avoid "mindlessly bumping."

No one has ever complained when someone has followed B with actual new information showing that they were working on the problem themselves.

Last edited by Trilby (2020-11-19 13:48:10)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman