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I've asked this question in 2019: Assert request hasn't happened and then provided the answer by myself, thus answering my question.

Today I've found in my mailbox a couple of confusing emails about marking this question as a duplicate etc etc

My questions regarding this are:

To be clear - I don't care which question is marked as a duplicate of which; if Cypress, verify that calls are not actually made is for most recent version of Cypress (as a comment to another new answer to my question now suggests) and provides most value to community, that's great. Just want to understand the rules that were applied here

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    nothing in the duplicates process says that a older questions can't be the duplicate of a newer question.
    – Thom A
    Commented May 30 at 12:30
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    Posts like these remind me of just how horrendous the language, guidance, and onboarding around closure is... it could really use some love by the company at some point.
    – zcoop98
    Commented May 30 at 14:54
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    As to the reason your question was closed as a duplicate of an newer question, 3 users with hundreds answers tagged to questions with cypress voted on the closure once one of those individuals flagged it as a duplicate. A user submitted an answer to a 5 year old question, it was then displayed on the first page, and drew the attention of users with the ability to vote to close the question as a duplicate. I can conclude issued the first close vote, but it does not matter, those 3 users did exactly what they should have done (IMO).
    – Security Hound
    Commented May 30 at 17:36
  • "why was my question, that was already answered, marked as closed; what does this mean?" - That is a very confusing question to ask when the topic of your meta post is in your own words closed as a duplicate. I don't like at all that duplicate links are handled as any other closure, but that does not make it hard to understand.
    – Gimby
    Commented May 31 at 12:36
  • @Gimby I didn't understand what closed means. I thought that answering a question means that is already closed. I've now read what closing means, so that is clear
    – eithed
    Commented Jun 1 at 17:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Probably just a judgment call on the people responsible for closing one of them. I don't know anything about the technology being discussed, but on casual glance, the newer question:

  • has more answers;
  • the answers are from more contributors;
  • those answers have more details...
  • ...and more upvotes.

Newer questions don't always have to be closed as duplicates of older questions. The duplicate target that remains open (e.g. where a user trying to solve the same problem should eventually end up, and where new solutions to the problem should also end up) should be the one deemed most valuable. And that is a subjective conclusion.

And while there's nothing wrong with self-answered questions, it can be useful to have confirmation that another person's answer is valuable and/or solved the problem. Me selecting my own answer with a checkmark feels like it's missing a check or balance somewhere.

I think it's a valid question, but there aren't a formal set of rules, per se. Sometimes one or more of the qualitative factors outweighs age.

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    Interesting; I'd assume that quality of my question and answers would direct the new questioneer to my question, also seeing that it's a new user I suspect that they've not searched for existing answers. A bit disappointing
    – eithed
    Commented May 30 at 12:49
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    @eithed Again, you have a different perspective of what quality means, compared to probably any other arbitrary person with vote-to-close privileges. Everybody thinks their own questions and answers are superior to everyone else's, but they're not the only judge. It is very rarely about better, anyway, which is what I was trying to get across in my answer.
    – testing-ma-lady
    Commented May 30 at 12:51
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    I most certainly not think that my answer is superior - just that it was most relevant (as it was the only existent one for quite some time). I'd had no complaints about marking my answer as no longer relevant, or something akin - but duplicate? It wasn't a duplicate when I wrote it.
    – eithed
    Commented May 30 at 12:56
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    @eithed You can define "better" in many ways. That you define it as more relevant doesn't change that other people may feel differently. And it's not about what was true at the time. It's about what is true now. Stop thinking about it like "Someone closed my question as a duplicate of another question that didn't even exist at the time!" It is "Someone closed my question as a duplicate of another question that exists now." And try to remember the purpose of the site...
    – testing-ma-lady
    Commented May 30 at 12:59
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    @eithed it is quite possible someone happened on your question after some useful answers were added to the duplicate target. At this point they decided the target was better as a canonical and decided to close your question as a duplicate of it. The age of the questions don't matter when we close as duplicate.
    – Abdul Aziz Barkat
    Commented May 30 at 13:03
  • @testing-ma-lady as I wrote - "if [new answer] provides most value to community, that's great", so I think I take the purpose of the site into account :)
    – eithed
    Commented May 30 at 13:18
  • @eithed That's fine, but you keep arguing that your answer is more relevant or not a duplicate simply because it was here first. First doesn't matter. And the people with enough power to close have subjectively decided that the new post provides more value. I'm not suggesting they're right, I'm just explaining why it is subjective.
    – testing-ma-lady
    Commented May 30 at 13:19
  • @testing-ma-lady I cannot not clarify (or argue as you're stating it) if you continue putting words in my mouth :) So that we're clear, thank you, I've gotten my answer and I'm satisfied with it. I'll stop responding now :)
    – eithed
    Commented May 30 at 14:11
  • @eithed Perhaps I'm misinterpreting it was most relevant (as it was the only existent one for quite some time) and it means something else, but, I don't believe I'm putting words in anyone's mouth. Glad I answered your question, in any case.
    – testing-ma-lady
    Commented May 30 at 14:24

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