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If I have a question, which already exists in Stack Overflow, but this older question has never been answered (meaning answered with a solution that works, it might have some answers that give some insight but have not been accepted nor working), what is the common or correct procedure?

Should I open a new question? Comment in the old one? What happens if someone flags it as a duplicate?

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    The "optimal" choice is to add a bounty to the original question.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 10:44
  • Cool, might do that, I'll delete mine then!
    – S. Dre
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 10:45
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    Note that you cannot close a question as a duplicate (on Stack Overflow) if the dupe candidate has no answers with a score of 1 or more (unless the 2 questions are by the same user).
    – Thom A
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 10:48
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    "but not been accepted" - this is one thing you shouldn't focus on. The intent of the accepted checkmark is just to indicate which solution helped the original poster the most. If you come across a question with multiple answers and none have been accepted - you should still make sure you are checking those answers (especially if they have been upvoted multiple times). You may be doing this already, but I wanted to make sure I pointed it out
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 13:08
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    Yes, I always do, mainly because people sometimes forget to accept any answer. But nice to point it out.
    – S. Dre
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 13:11
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    Obligatory xkcd (979)
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 13:38
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    The bounty system has never worked well or as intended - you could try it but I doubt you'll see any results. Personally I never care about bounties.
    – Lundin
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 15:17
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    @Lundin: and it's quite hard for users like OP with only 170 rep to actually place a bounty. It might result in a privilege loss.
    – Thomas Weller
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:59

1 Answer 1

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I would write a new question.

  • Start by linking to the old question to show your research, this is always a good thing to do. Also mention any other research you have done.
  • Try to write the new question better than the old one. Make it up to date, include code examples if applicable, consider if it could be tagged better etc etc.
  • Sometimes asking a question in a more generic way might give more results, so this could be an option if you the original question was too specialized.

Should you receive an accepted answer to your new question, we can then close the old unanswered question as duplicate to the new one. Just mindlessly closing posts as dupes because something has been asked before is a narrow-minded, problematic attitude - especially if no good duplicate target exists. We should rather strive to preserve the question + answers of the highest quality, regardless of when they were posted.

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    The OP has indicated that the question they want to ask has already been asked. Can't the advice you've given (making it up to date, including code samples, better tags, phrasing it a bit more generically if it's a bit too narrow) all be done as an edit to the original question? I'm not sure why posting a new question is preferable to editing the original question.
    – cigien
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:17
  • Hmm.. wouldn't that involve more people and more time cigien? I don't remember since I don't edit often, but don't edits from people without a golden badge in that tag need of aproval?
    – S. Dre
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:35
  • isn't that the goal? but yes, edits from people with less than x rep have to be approved
    – Kevin B
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:38
  • @S.Dre Yes, it would involve more users to review the edit if you don't have edit privileges (this privilege needs 2k rep, not a gold badge in any of the tags). It may be easier to actually post a new question, but I feel I should point out that posting duplicate questions is generally frowned upon, and you may receive downvotes for no reason other than for it being a duplicate. If you do decide to take the advice in this answer (which I don't recommend), please make sure the new Q is substantially better than the original, to not give the impression that you're simply "bumping" the old post.
    – cigien
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:40
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    I'll keep it in mind then, let's see if another option appears, although I think I agree with this answer.
    – S. Dre
    Commented Mar 7, 2022 at 16:42
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    @cigien No that sounds like a bad idea. Editing someone else's question to include code samples etc is dubious in the first place, plus it creates edit review busy-work. I don't see any benefits. Again, the attitude of "this has been asked before, it must be closed" is too narrow-minded; we need to consider if what's already on the site could be improved by replacing it instead. This attitude is also the reason why we have so many mediocre quality "canonical" duplicates, massively up-voted, but actually of so-so quality.
    – Lundin
    Commented Mar 8, 2022 at 7:18

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