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I recently edited the question "How to know what is causing a weird lock screen with ads to show up?" and realized that this might be closed as a duplicate of "What is this lock screen with ads and how do I remove it?". The latter question has many answers with extensive list of apps exhibiting the problem (another lock screen with ads).

For some reason, the apps in those lists didn't (as I presumed) work as none of the apps were installed in asker's phone. It turned out to be an another app, a game specifically.

The latter question, unfortunately, doesn't have any answer which helps in identifying apps through troubleshooting. The answers are merely acting as a repository of known apps exhibiting such problems. I tried to solve this problem by inviting technical answers, but to no avail.

So, should close voters and Moderators vote to close those former questions as a duplicate to the latter, or is there a better solution available?

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    What about merging?
    – iBug
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 4:53
  • @iBug yeah, that's one choice available, although the latter question would have to be edited to accommodate the merged answers, otherwise, an unsuspecting user could argue how the merged answer addresses the latter question (the one with most answers).
    – Firelord Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 12:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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First thing that comes to mind is the nature of answers that fit such questions. In the absence of any technical solution (which OP had asked), it has to be a repository of known apps that cause this nuisance.

Secondly, this repository has to be a living repository , given that there would be a steady supply of new apps that would cause this lock screen behaviour.

In our framework , Community Wiki (CW) is a viable solution meeting these needs. What are "Community Wiki" posts? from mother meta is a useful reference. Here is what I propose:

  1. Consolidate existing questions (two at the moment) by merging.

  2. Convert the merged question into a CW (question and all answers will become CW posts).What is this lock screen with ads and how do I remove it? will be the foundation of CW.

  3. There are comments in the main answer that list additional apps. These could be added as a CW answer to make the list comprehensive.

  4. This CW becomes a canonical question for duplicate closure in future. In case OP (in future) finds their question marked as duplicate but they don't have any listed apps installed, it is not treated as duplicate (as is done for any other question, when existing solutions don't work).

  5. In case, a technical solution emerges in future, that would also be included in the CW.

But wait and think

What is this lock screen with ads and how do I remove it? is a very popular question with about 250k views, with 60 votes on the question and the highest rated answer having 64 votes (It has 13 answers). It is unique in that sense and while I haven't verifed, it is easily the top voted (questions and answers put together) in the last two years.

By converting this to CW , none of the contributors lose reputation gained from it. Quoting from CW post of meta

  • The original author still gets badges based on community posts.

  • The original author keeps the reputation gained (or lost) before their post entered community mode.

But they will not gain/lose reputation in future, once it is made a CW

This could be a valid concern for the contributors. Unless, we have a community consensus on this it may cause resentment and one needs to be very deliberate about this.

So up vote if you agree and down vote if you don't.

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  • While the consensus on this builds up as an immediate measure step 1 (merging those two questions) can be done and form the basis of duplicate close vote. There could be objections to this as pointed out in comments by OP, but one can point to this meta discussion to explain the rationale.
    – beeshyams Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 15:04
  • I have also posted an answer on that proposed CW but am OK with not getting rep in future so +1 from my side :)
    – beeshyams Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 15:41
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    I just noticed that Benjamin (author of most voted answer) wrote this in a comment: ..If you or anyone else finds more feel free to edit them in or (if it makes sense) make this a community-wiki...
    – Firelord Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 18:38
  • Benjamin's answer has a very short list compared to bmdixon's. He also has gotten 60+ votes already and is fine with it if the answer is turned into a CW. OTOH, we have bmdixon's extensive list with commentators sometime suggesting an app to be added to it too. I think if it has to be done, his can be converted to CW, and Benjamin's unfortunately has to be deleted. It could be otherwise, if bmdixon prefers.
    – Firelord Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2018 at 18:56
  • Yes. bmdixons list is bigger and therefore better. But it doesn't really matter because in the end all are going to be merged into a single answer. But having the buy in of at least top few answerers helps
    – beeshyams Mod
    Commented Dec 1, 2018 at 2:22
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    +1 from me. My answer was initially based on a list from elsewhere but has been added to over time so I can't take all of the credit anyway. I'm happy for this to be converted into a CW.
    – bmdixon
    Commented Dec 3, 2018 at 10:31

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