63
votes
Enforcement of Quality Standards
Since this policy was announced, we have witnessed a shift in attitude from the moderators. No longer are users trusted to make their own decisions on what can be posted and what cannot, given their ...
- 16.8k
32
votes
Accepted
Why do high rep, long time users answer duplicate or too similar questions on book recommendations?
I am a long-time user, been on the site for $59$ months, and have a reputation just above $57,000$ on the main site. I have made a fair share of mistakes on the site, both in my answers, as well as ...
26
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to delete unanswered, marked as duplicates questions?
It depends. Ultimately it's your decision whether you want to delete your unanswered duplicate questions - within the constraints of the software: you can't delete more than five of your own posts per ...
- 205k
26
votes
Accepted
I voted mistakenly to close as duplicate. When I realised my mistake, my comment explaining why was deleted.
Your Comment contained a link to an older Question. Although this Question was not the final target chosen by voting to close-as-duplicate, someone may have voted to consider that target the ...
- 36.6k
22
votes
Accepted
Is it ok to edit questions that are closed as duplicates?
Yes, it is okay. More than that, it's useful, provided that the edit does indeed improve the post significantly.
Diligent reviewers will notice that the question is still a duplicate [assuming it ...
- 205k
22
votes
Enforcement of Quality Standards
The real problem with so-called low quality questions and answers (which are often duplicates) is that the incentive system is set up to encourage it. If a user has several tens or hundreds of ...
- 7,113
20
votes
Should duplicate questions be deleted?
If a duplicate will improve search then it should be left. There are questions on the site whose title bears little relation to the general form of the question it answers, or to a number of different ...
- 9,125
20
votes
Enforcement of Quality Standards
A week has passed since this post, and I'd like to leave some useful pointers for everyone, which I think will help everyone continue to have a positive experience in the site, and keep the community ...
PedroMod
- 121k
20
votes
Accepted
How exactly are we incentivized to post links to duplicates?
I think your action to post the link was fine. Thanks for taking the effort to go search for related questions, by the way! Martin Sleziak has pointed out in the comments a couple of misconceptions ...
- 763
20
votes
Accepted
Is it a duplicate if the same question exists in another site?
I think an answer linking to and summarizing the "duplicate" would be appropriate in such cases. I have posted such answers a few times, usually marking them as community wiki.
- 10.4k
19
votes
Accepted
Totally similar questions are not closed for years
There are many thousands questions on the site, and it's not always easy to find the duplicates. When you do find one, feel free to flag it (or vote to close it) as a duplicate, even if it's old.
- 43.3k
19
votes
What to do with two old questions that are clear duplicates but not marked so?
There are so many questions; plenty of things just fall through the cracks.
When you come across clear-cut old duplicates flag/vote one of them as such. (Click "flag" select "a duplicate" etc.)
...
quidMod
- 41.9k
17
votes
Accepted
Does it make sense to flag a question as duplicate if it already has an answer?
Yes. It does.
It helps to sort the site, it helps to point people to more answers, and it helps to signal that perhaps one should search the site before posting a question.
- 390k
17
votes
Accepted
Flagged duplicate "Does this answer your question?" text is misleading
In principle, I have no issue with the new language, i.e. "Does this answer your question? [link]" The premise is that the asker is the best qualified person to determine whether or not their ...
- 27.4k
15
votes
What if the duplicate has a better answer than the original?
What would happen to these answers (I assume they will be deleted)?
Typically, nothing would happen to these answers. By default, duplicate questions aren't deleted, and unless the question is ...
- 205k
15
votes
Accepted
Why community in SE deleted my comment related to the below duplicate question?
I am sorry for the frustration, but it is of nobody's doing, specifically.
The automatic comment posted upon a vote to close as a duplicate or also a flag as duplicate, the current case, gets ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
14
votes
Accepted
This question is an exact duplicate of: Page Not Found
Usually, duplicate targets are not deleted. They cannot be deleted by votes. Only, auto-deletion can happen, yet usually duplicate targets are not eligible for auto-deletion as they need to be ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
13
votes
What's going on with my flag?
"I was certain from the very beginning that my vote is a waste of time, since one needs some knowledge and willingness to perceive why that question is a duplicate, ..."
I'm willing to grant that ...
- 36.6k
13
votes
Closing a poor question as off-topic or as a duplicate?
I am promoting my comments to an answer, as this came up again in CURED again today.
My flowchart is as follows:
Is the question of sufficient quality to keep on the site?
Yes. Go to step 2.
No. ...
- 27.4k
13
votes
Accepted
On the correct procedure after answering a quadruplicate question
In general, if you find multiple duplicates and none are closed, you should pick the best formulation of the question to be "the original" (more accurately, the "duplicate target"). It isn't super ...
- 26.7k
12
votes
Accepted
Is it against the rules to ask about a different proof for a proposition which has already been asked?
It's all about learning math now and curating great content for the future.
You are of course welcome, encouraged even, to propose a substantially different answer to an existing Question. The ...
- 36.6k
12
votes
What's the difference between duplicate flag and close duplicate flag?
The only difference is that flagging directly as a duplicate takes one less click than flagging to close as a duplicate. This can be inferred from the dialog you see after flagging as a duplicate:
...
- 51.8k
12
votes
What if the duplicate has a better answer than the original?
I guess that my strong antipathy towards duplicates is by now adequately documented. I want to add the following points.
Closing a question as a duplicate does not hurt the asker one bit, because ...
- 131k
12
votes
Accepted
Can't close duplicate bounty questions with exactly same "accepted" answers
This is an unusual situation. The main problem is the repost of the question by the asker. This is not admissible. Somehow this went unnoticed. That they then got both bounties is an astonishing twist....
quidMod
- 41.9k
12
votes
How to flag a question that asks multiple duplicated questions?
A question can have more than one duplicate target. You can find some examples in this SEDE query.
As far as I remember:
This happens if various users choose various duplicate targets when voting to ...
- 52.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Statistics of fraction of questions closed per month (posted that month itself)
For such inquiries, SEDE seems like a reasonable tool. I have tried to do some queries - I have no doubt that they can be modified and improved in various ways.
Description of the queries posted below
...
- 52.9k
11
votes
Accepted
How close a match we need to close a recurring question as a duplicate?
The OP asked in original version (now substantially rewritten a further from a rant): "Am I the only one concerned about duplicates?" My answer to this would be certainly not, as witnessed by many ...
- 52.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Answering my own new and more detailed question rather than an existing one
Answer your own question but don't mark the old one as duplicate,because it is not. Instead you can add a comment to the old question which says there is an answer to the question here.
- 7,309
11
votes
Is it acceptable to post a "better" version of an existing question?
It depends.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question—as the extensive discussion in comments illustrates.
However, I can address the points you raise one by one and explain how they do ...
- 3,049
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible