Is there any routine to decide which one of the duplicate questions should prevail? The one which has been in existence the longest? It would probably not be good if both were accidentally shut down because they were each others duplicate.
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$\begingroup$ You can find some older discussions on meta. For example here, here and here. $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakDec 7, 2015 at 15:17
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1$\begingroup$ The system should prevent users from creating circularity among duplicates, see here. Should such thing still happen, mods can help. $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakDec 7, 2015 at 15:19
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$\begingroup$ Ok thanks alot. $\endgroup$– mathreadlerDec 7, 2015 at 15:29
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1$\begingroup$ I find it amusing that this question on duplicates is a duplicate $\endgroup$– silvascientistDec 9, 2015 at 0:56
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$\begingroup$ Yes, I also realized it! $\endgroup$– mathreadlerDec 9, 2015 at 9:18
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1 Answer
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When faced with many potential duplicate's to point to, point it at the duplicate you think will help the user the most.
This might not be a sink of the duplicate graph: perhaps the 'most popular' duplicate is overly general, and the current user would benefit from an intermediate duplicate's solution.
When faced with two questions only and deciding which is duplicate, it's well established in the links posted by other users that order of occurrence is not an overriding concern. Try to judge which one is asked and answered the best.
