25 votes
Accepted

Why does the Community user mark questions as duplicates?

When a "duplicate" close vote or flag is cast, a box appears above the question visible to the question's owner. It prompts the author to either edit the question to clarify its non-...
  • 39.5k
15 votes
Accepted

What to do with same answers to different questions by the same user?

If the questions are duplicates, one should be closed as such. In that case, it should be explained to the user that we prefer information to be centralized, so they should flag instead of posting the ...
  • 39.5k
15 votes
Accepted

How to Report Cyclic Flagging?

Someone went and edited the duplicate close banner, which normally shouldn't be able to happen. The problem in this case is that the question was closed before the current system was put in place and ...
  • 87.5k
14 votes

A better way to find duplicates?

List of Canonical Questions/Answers that can be used as Duplicate Targets How can I remove malicious spyware, malware, adware, viruses, trojans or rootkits from my PC?? How do I recover lost/...
  • 150k
14 votes
Accepted

Should we be copying other Stack Exchange sites Q&As so we can create "canonical" Q&As here?

There's nothing legally wrong with copying an answer wholesale, provided there's clear attribution. Content creators agreed to those guidelines when they posted on a Stack Exchange site. That said, I'...
  • 39.5k
13 votes
Accepted

Duplicate question, but different?

Post it as new question? This is the correct action to take, as it will give your problem the visibility it needs in order to get an answer. You should ask a new question, referencing the old one if ...
  • 150k
11 votes

Closed question information blurb seems -- wrong/confusing?

It seems as though some users on Stack Exchange are a bit trigger-happy when it comes to closing questions.  Somebody asks "How do I do X on Windows 10?", and it gets closed as a duplicate of "How do ...
8 votes
Accepted

Closing a question as a duplicate (followup)

What would be the best approach here (1 or 2)? What if I disagree with the closure of a question? How can I reopen it? Stack Exchange is collaboratively built, maintained, and moderated by ...
  • 150k
8 votes

Same answer from different users on different questions

As far as I know, excerpts of already posted answers are ok as long as they respect original authorship, e.g. including a link to the original answer. If the newer answers are blatant copies (which ...
  • 5,479
7 votes

Closed question information blurb seems -- wrong/confusing?

Short Answer The blurb is basically good advice but the wording could be improved. This isn't what bounties are for. Don't be overly concerned about the dupe, yet. Think of it more in terms of "...
  • 26.9k
6 votes
Accepted

Incorrect duplicate

Most questions closed as duplicates are...duplicates Why are questions able to be marked as duplicate without some more in depth review? To be closed as 'duplicate' a question must be reviewed by no ...
5 votes

Should we be copying other Stack Exchange sites Q&As so we can create "canonical" Q&As here?

The various aspects of the question are well laid out and I completely agree with Ben N's answer. What I want to focus on is the relative "gravity" of the issues. One set of issues relates to scope ...
  • 26.9k
4 votes

Should we be copying other Stack Exchange sites Q&As so we can create "canonical" Q&As here?

I feel the right way to do something that might be to the 'letter' but not the spirit of the rules would have been to ask on meta first. This is one of those cases. It sets a bad precedent both for ...
  • 126k
3 votes

which question is the duplicate?

I did some quick research and found some precedent: example precedent #1 says "Yes, it is perfectly acceptable to mark an older post as a duplicate of a newer one. The duplicate banner is a road sign ...
3 votes
Accepted

Duplicate that isn't a duplicate

None of the answers to the proposed question correctly answer mine Please see the instructions in the help article Why are some questions marked as duplicate?: If you see a question and do not ...
  • 150k
3 votes

Closed question information blurb seems -- wrong/confusing?

Rephrase the close reason to invite the user to provide information demonstrating why their question is not a duplicate, rather than confusingly suggesting that the best course of action is to create ...
3 votes
Accepted

Is a duplicate question closed?

Duplicate questions are essentially closed in the same way as any of the other close reasons. They simply have an extra header listing the duplicates. You'll notice that questions that are closed as ...
  • 87.5k
2 votes
Accepted

I have flagged a question as a duplicate. The flag was marked as "helpful". But the question still hasn't closed

The question you flagged is still in the closure review queue: https://superuser.com/review/close/1062030 As someone thought that the flag had merit in being a duplicate it may be that the closure ...
  • 87.5k
2 votes

Should we be copying other Stack Exchange sites Q&As so we can create "canonical" Q&As here?

I fully agree that closing questions as duplicate from other site of stackexchange would be an easy solution. Now let's discuss the situation in general when the question is a good quality one, it's ...
2 votes

community-faq is a useless meta tag primarily serving the older users

Canonical Q&A It doesn't make sense to not have a collection of canonical Q&A that is easy to find, and easy to find the specific question within. It would be great if newcomers to the site ...
  • 26.9k
2 votes

"Adding folders" marked as a duplicate of "Adding item" to Explorer sidebar

The question has been re-opened.
  • 61.2k
1 vote

Duplicate post has been deleted

That's deliberate. Links that are added in to point to canonical questions do not automatically get removed if they themselves are deleted. If it was not closed as a duplicate it would have been ...
  • 14.5k
1 vote

Is there a way to 'un-duplicate'?

As others have noted in comments, the way to prevent your question from being marked as duplicate is to look at the possible duplicate answers, and then clearly note how their answers to not meet your ...
  • 39.9k
1 vote
Accepted

Chrome 'backspace key navigation re-enable' question dupe closure should probably be the other way around

Question How can I re-enable backspace navigation in Chrome? has been reopened and the newer question has been marked as duplicate and merged into the older one since the older question has higher ...
  • 61.2k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible