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In this question and many others which I have seen, the question is an exact copy with little changes to itself on quora or other sites. I left a comment on the post with reference to the quora post, however, IMHO, the OP could have done that themselves. Should we be more harsh on this? I am sure that many others have also faced this issue. After all , a simple search can provide an answer to a question. I believe that it is good if they(Referencing to everyone in general) try to find their question on the internet and if they do not understand the solution given, then ask it here with reference to the other website which they have seen that potential solution. If they do not do as such, I think that that is either down to laziness or negligence. Which is something that I am guilty of as well and must improve on.

I also think that if the community does emphasise this more, the chances of questions being answered in the comments will definitely decrease. Furthermore, I think that we should extend the duplicate functionality to websites like quora or AoPS . Let me know your thoughts.

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    $\begingroup$ One problem is, we want math.stackexchange to become the premier repository of mathematical knowledge on the internet. That would suggest that if there's an answer on quora or Wikipedia or AoPS then we should post a copy of it on our site. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 6:02
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    $\begingroup$ Good point. I didn't think of that. Albeit, it seems very time consuming copying over solutions from other webpages. Also, wouldn't that require some form of consent(permission), to reproduce material? $\endgroup$
    – Bumblebee
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 6:06
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    $\begingroup$ Well, it might be a tad unrealistic to hope to have all of math on our site. We may have to lower our expectations a little. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 6:13
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    $\begingroup$ Posts that have been directly copy-pasted from elsewhere, especially when they give no context or further effort towards a solution, should be closed under existing policies. "I saw this problem and don't understand the answer" is a waste of time; "I saw this problem and follow the solution up to step 7, but I don't get how lemma A links to the equation B, is it something to do with C's theorem?" is at least workable. $\endgroup$
    – Nij
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 10:09
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    $\begingroup$ How exactly would a duplicate closure direction to other websites work? "Answers" that just link to somewhere else without further explanation, and in particular those that become useless if the link goes bad, are already deleted network-wide. Your answer is in another castle would be an appropriate search in this regard. $\endgroup$
    – Nij
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 10:12
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    $\begingroup$ I thought that maybe (cross-posting) could be a suitable tag here? I have also checked whether posting on SE and Quora has been discussed elsewhere. Among the few results I found, this post on Meta Stack Exchange seems to be closest to this topic: Am I allowed to indicate crosspost links in my questions on Stack Exchange? $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Feb 4, 2022 at 10:34
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    $\begingroup$ One thing that can be done is to provide seach bar of approach zero, besides the ask question section. $\endgroup$
    – user1012971
    Commented Feb 5, 2022 at 8:28
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    $\begingroup$ Yeah that is useful. I only know that Approach zero can find posts on MSE and AoPS. @MartinSleziak is it possible to include quora and other math websites and forums in the search? Sorry if what i'm asking is stupid, i'm not very good with these tech things. $\endgroup$
    – Bumblebee
    Commented Feb 5, 2022 at 9:17
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    $\begingroup$ @Ajay Have you checked SearchOnMath - that's another search engine mentioned in the FAQ post: How to search on this site? I am not the right person to ask about extending Approach0 - in any case, I would suggest to continue such discussion in the chatroom dedicated to searching - it seems a bit tangential here. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Feb 5, 2022 at 9:24
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    $\begingroup$ Stackexchange doesn't attempt to avoid duplicating knowledge that can be found elsewhere on the internet. "Your question can be answered by googling" isn't a reason to close a question, if the question is on topic and has not already been asked on math.stackexchange. People ask questions on this forum because they want answers from this community. For whatever reason, the best explanations often tend to appear on math.stackexchange. Even if an answer can be found elsewhere, a more insightful answer is likely to appear on math.stackexchange. $\endgroup$
    – littleO
    Commented Feb 6, 2022 at 9:07
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    $\begingroup$ If a question is asked here with context, it's no more the question whose answer can be found by googling. Context isn't merely a honesty certificate, it's for answerers to make use of as they write their answer so they can tailor their efforts better to the poster. So googling could get you answers, but they mayn't be the answers you want. As for Quora, well, copy-pasting titles from Quora is going to get you in trouble here anyway (like in the linked question) and how reliable are answers on Quora, in any case? I can say with some confidence that the same question here gets better answers. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Feb 6, 2022 at 11:50
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    $\begingroup$ That doesn't mean that one shouldn't give credit, though. Answerers/Questions obtaining content from elsewhere should strive to give credit to that source, whether it be Quora, AoPS, a paper, or a book. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Feb 6, 2022 at 12:00
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    $\begingroup$ The reason I provide for this is that while Google, Quora, Reddit etc. may provide generic answers that do not deal with OP's situation with much specificity(or even correctness and readability, noting MathJax is available only here), I believe that we should give MSE the opportunity to exceed those sources in quality, particularly if the questions themselves are on-topic to start with. MSE's infrastructure and userbase already give it a good head start in the race for quality. $\endgroup$
    – Sarvesh Ravichandran Iyer
    Commented Feb 8, 2022 at 17:09
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    $\begingroup$ This has scared me a little bit. Many times I have posted questions here the answers to which I had already found elsewhere. I have found that more often than not a helper here offers some new insights and, sometimes, completely new solutions. $\endgroup$
    – caffeinemachine
    Commented Feb 9, 2022 at 5:42
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    $\begingroup$ @user1115542: I often struggle to find my own answers. One (not perfect) trick is to try and write a question; the automated search for duplicates/related when you are writing a question is much much better than the plain search. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Argerami
    Commented Feb 11, 2022 at 0:09

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