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Questions tagged [duplicate-questions]

Questions flagged as duplicate, and what are, or are not, good reasons to do so.

54 votes
5 answers
2k views

What should you do when you realize you have answered a duplicate question?

I have a question about best current practices regarding a situation where one first answers a question and then later realizes the question is a duplicate. As a concrete example, I answered a ...
Jörg W Mittag's user avatar
43 votes
3 answers
2k views

Should I improve/rewrite an existing, unanswered question or ask my own near-duplicate?

I recently had a problem and looked for a solution here on Stack Overflow. I found a similar question asked by someone else, but with almost no details, which might be the reason why no answer has ...
theoretisch's user avatar
  • 1,728
-1 votes
1 answer
250 views

Is it time to rethink the rules regarding duplicate/signpost questions?

After receiving such a warm reception from my Cooperative, democratic, topic-scoped curation proposal, I decided to continue my crusade to find all of the signposts and related pages for the task of &...
mickmackusa's user avatar
  • 46.6k
21 votes
6 answers
883 views

Change the stigma regarding signposts

Plenty of Stack Overflow users have told me over the years that having great signposts is a sought outcome because it helps researchers (and search engines) to find the desired content. However, for ...
mickmackusa's user avatar
  • 46.6k
20 votes
0 answers
152 views

Replace "Duplicate" with "Resolved Elsewhere" as a close reason

Spurred by the commented feedback under my answer to Question Close Reasons project - Introduction and Feedback, I'd like to see the term "Duplicate" retired. In its place, I'd like to see ...
mickmackusa's user avatar
  • 46.6k
-10 votes
3 answers
327 views

Was this post closed then deleted for a valid reason?

I understand questions are closed as dupes if the community feels that a similar question has been addressed in another question, but, I find myself discombobulated regarding a recent post deletion ...
sseLtaH's user avatar
  • 11.1k
7 votes
0 answers
87 views

Why can't I insta-mark my own question as a duplicate? [duplicate]

How can I mark my question as a duplicate? shows that marking my own question as a dupe is no different than marking someone else's. But why can't I just decide? As the author I might be far better ...
Mr. Boy's user avatar
  • 62.8k
2 votes
1 answer
149 views

Are questions closed as duplicates eventually deleted?

I asked a question that I was then able to find the answer to after reading through comments in similar questions. I answered my own question using information I learned in those comments: Why does ...
Matt Welke's user avatar
  • 1,748
2 votes
0 answers
82 views

Duplication notice doesn't contain the duplicated question [duplicate]

Question in question: Specifying thickness of lines in graphviz
Ooker's user avatar
  • 2,625
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

What should I do if a question is not a duplicate just because of some tag, but the OP accepts an answer that does not use the tag?

To give a specific example, I recently came across this question which seems to involve a somewhat common problem, so I searched for duplicates. I found a similar question, but it didn’t have the java-...
Didier L's user avatar
  • 20.2k
3 votes
1 answer
256 views

What's the best way to group these 5 nearly-duplicate questions together?

These 5 questions are nearly the same: Is there a way to automatically remove unused CSS rules when building a Visual Studio project? How to find and remove unused CSS by Chrome https://stackoverflow....
Basj's user avatar
  • 44.9k
-37 votes
2 answers
187 views

Can we raise the standard for closing as a dupe or instigate a penalty for getting it wrong?

The dupe hammer was swung again on this question: How to conditionally add predicate conditions in a LINQ query expression The original duplicate flag was erroneous. It was based purely on the OP's ...
Chris Schaller's user avatar
48 votes
7 answers
1k views

Dupe closed question is reopened, then answered and closed again as a different dupe by a gold badge holder

I recently came across a common "how do I split a string on x but not if the x is in quotes" type question that a couple of people had suggested were duplicates of a state machine parsing/...
Caius Jard's user avatar
  • 73.8k
1 vote
0 answers
66 views

URL redirect rules for questions identified as duplicates [duplicate]

Are there a list of hard-coded rules for the community to review on URL redirects for questions marked as dupes? I noticed that if one is not logged on MSO (some questions redirect, while others do ...
etch_45's user avatar
  • 792
53 votes
4 answers
1k views

What is the policy on users deleting closed questions and asking them again repeatedly?

I've encountered two users in the [three.js] tag who seem to be gaming the system to post duplicates of the same question. I've flagged this behavior with no resolution, so I'm not sure how to handle ...
M -'s user avatar
  • 28.1k
-8 votes
1 answer
208 views

How to raise a duplicate question to be voted on?

I'm not sure if the question has been asked before but I've posted a possible similar solution link in the comment section of this question without initially raising a duplicate flag. The OP did reply ...
FanoFN's user avatar
  • 7,043
-11 votes
2 answers
126 views

New question downvoted and closed but simpler wording and better performance than duplicates [closed]

I posted the question More efficient list of all files in a directory in PHP, sorted by modifiation time? I see now, that it is nearly a duplicate of Sort function works wrong with filemtime PHP, How ...
Basj's user avatar
  • 44.9k
-6 votes
1 answer
128 views

`Check if a string is a date value` is a duplicate of `Detecting an "invalid date" Date instance in JavaScript`

Check if a string is a date value is a duplicate of Detecting an "invalid date" Date instance in JavaScript. This comment states so and 6 users (including me) agree. My flag was declined by ...
bzr's user avatar
  • 4,710
46 votes
3 answers
1k views

What should I do if the question I need is already asked, but in a poor way?

I want to ask a question, but it has already been asked. That would make my question duplicated. Editing the question would need to remove particular details (which are not relevant to the actual ...
Josu Goñi's user avatar
  • 1,254
-2 votes
2 answers
143 views

Should questions asking for help with debugging code be marked as duplicate?

If someone asks a question that has been previously asked/answered, obviously that is a duplicate question. However, if someone posts a question asking for assistance with code that implements the ...
MFerguson's user avatar
  • 1,747
3 votes
0 answers
131 views

Avoid dupe hammer [duplicate]

I have php in gold. I am not a PHP expert. I would like to suggest duplicates using the close dialog but not dupe hammer it. How can I do this?
Daniel A. White's user avatar
54 votes
2 answers
1k views

Regex question getting closed as a dupe with a too broad target, and now receiving delete votes

Disclaimer: I have a stake in this question, as I'm the owner of the accepted answer. I'm disappointed with the process that's happening on this question about a regex-related error message in ...
Cerbrus's user avatar
  • 72.2k
32 votes
2 answers
1k views

How should I correctly handle a question divided into several posts from the same user?

I found four questions, all posted by this user, which deal with the same topic, and with the same title. The first question differs from the others only for the wording "Part 2", "Part ...
Stefano Sansone's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
237 views

Add the possibility to post an explanation when closing as dup

I was thinking that it should be possible to add a short explanation when closing as a duplicate. Look at this question about strange result from long long n = pow(10,18) + 1 in C. The core reason for ...
klutt's user avatar
  • 31k
1 vote
0 answers
117 views

Can I know that my question is used as a referral/source for duplicates? [duplicate]

You all know how duplicates work: A person asks a question Q1, which gets an answer A1. Later on, another person asks a very similar question Q2, and he or she gets informed that Q2 is a duplicate of ...
Dominique's user avatar
  • 17.2k
2 votes
1 answer
208 views

Why was this duplicate flag declined when the target dupe clearly answered the question?

This question has the same error in the question I marked it as a duplicate for (How can I migrate my code to Discord.js v12 from v11?). They both contain the same error, the same problem, and the ...
MrMythical's user avatar
  • 9,016
-2 votes
1 answer
196 views

How can I improve questions marked as duplicate? [closed]

I am currently question banned, and thus are editing and revising all of my questions. But, a fair number of them are duplicates. How can I edit them to improve them and eventually relieve the ...
CATboardBETA's user avatar
-5 votes
1 answer
210 views

Are questions with different symptom(s), same cause, same solution duplicates?

Users often ask questions about symptom(s), as opposed to causes, since askers often haven't discovered the cause of the symptom(s) they're experiencing at the time of asking. Are questions with the ...
stevec's user avatar
  • 48.6k
19 votes
2 answers
464 views

How should I handle users reposting their closed question with minimal title changes? [duplicate]

There was this question: How can I run psexec on the remote PC which isn't in my network? In my opinion it was off-topic for two reasons: a) should be on Super User, b) asking for tool recommendations....
CherryDT's user avatar
  • 28.5k
6 votes
1 answer
168 views

When closing as a duplicate, is it OK to link to the entry which is itself closed as a duplicate?

When closing as a duplicate, is it OK to link to the entry which is itself closed as a duplicate of another, older entry with much higher views count (2k vs 170 views), and more answers which are also ...
Will Ness's user avatar
  • 70.7k

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