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This should be very easy to implement... I think there should be an option for listing questions by oldest. There is, of course, the 'newest' listing option. Why not just make an 'oldest' beside it? Or click a second time on newest and it switches to oldest? I think another method might be letting someone input a date range.

The problem is getting to the old, unanswered questions easily. As it is right now, it is difficult to get to most of the questions without taking random stabs in the dark with tabs or clicking through page after page. I think Random sort for Unanswered questions is a step in the right direction as well.

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  • The "big problem" with old Questions is that the circumstances of the situation are commonly unclear and the Questioner is highly unlikely to respond to calls for clarification. Also it's quite common that the problem no longer exists for wholly unrelated reasons (no longer using the system, no longer a requirement, etc).
    – Chris S
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:03
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    using that logic, why bother keeping them around? if you're going to negate the older questions (for whatever reason - unclear, no longer exists, deprecation, etc.) why bother at all? Personally, I find that a bit defeatist.
    – Ben Campbell
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 15:12
  • I'd be interested to see how many people support this idea but at this stage I seriously doubt there will be enough to warrant the coding changes that would be required. This question also probably belongs more on MSO but we all know what happens to our questions over there.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 20:47
  • @Ben, I tend to agree that there is probably no need to keep those old questions around but what criteria should be used to cull them without causing undue collateral damage?
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 20:48
  • I would pick a time frame... something in the rules for posting questions that is clearly defined. I would think that 3 solid months of no answers, comments or additional information provided means they really don't care about getting the question answered. I don't know of many technical issues pressing enough to post on here that I could wait 3 months to figure out. Why 3 months? I think one month is too short and I think 6 months is too long due to my experience working in IT and how quickly the rules change. What do you think? (thanks for your comment by the way.)
    – Ben Campbell
    Commented Oct 18, 2011 at 21:11
  • @Ben, it's not overly unusual for questions to get answered 6 months after being posted. Not all issues are urgent. Some are more in the "I would like" rather than the "I need" category. I have some questions that have had no activity for longer than that which are still waiting for a solution. Admittedly they do have some answers and/or comments but even if they didn't, the question is as valid today as when I posted it.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 0:05
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    @JohnGardeniers: Questions are already being deleted. See: meta.serverfault.com/questions/1210/…
    – Bart De Vos
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:04
  • I think there is a more pressing problem. A lot of answered/solved questions are not marked as "Solved". Example: Windows 7 joining OS X Server domain The list would be flooded with questions that are unclear and the OP will not revisit or solved questions that aren't marked as such. Isn't there a way we could mark questions as solved?
    – Bart De Vos
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 11:06
  • "it's not overly unusual for questions to get answered 6 months after being posted" - this is exactly what i was originally addressing with my question/suggestion: additional methods of finding those unanswered questions more easily. thanks!
    – Ben Campbell
    Commented Oct 19, 2011 at 14:00

1 Answer 1

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Well, you can simply view the unanswered section, sorted by "newest", then go to the last page, like so:

https://serverfault.com/unanswered/tagged/?page=363&tab=newest

So there is already a way to achieve this.

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  • Well, you can turn off the lights by not paying the electric bill too. The point being that it's a website. Its designed to display information easily. It would be easier if I had more methods of sorting.
    – Ben Campbell
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 14:24

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