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Sometimes I found out on single question One answered and after some time another answer which is very similar to 1st (may with negligible too-minor edit), say duplication of 1st answer!

Which seems not Right Way.

What actions can be done against duplication? Or what to do with such answer-post?

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  • You mean the same answer twice in the same question, or something else?
    – Braiam
    Aug 24, 2014 at 15:47
  • @Braiam yes by different user.
    – Pandya
    Aug 24, 2014 at 15:48

1 Answer 1

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Let's go over three of the main scenarios involving duplicate answers (these are the ones I see the most).

  1. User A posts an answer "You need to foo the bar". User B comes along and posts an answer "You need to foo the bar" and then goes on to explain why he needs to foo the bar, and how to foo the bar. I upvote user B's answer and move on (sometimes I downvote user A's answer as well).

  2. User Z asks a question "How do I get baz to run properly?". User A posts an answer "You need to foo the bar" 1 minute after the question is asked. User B posts an answer "You need to foo the bar" 1 minute and 15 seconds after the question is asked. I normally ignore this, as long as it isn't actively causing problems (hopefully one user will expand on their answer).

  3. User A posts an answer "You need to foo the bar". 2 months later, User B posts an answer "You need to foo the bar." I delete these, they don't serve any useful purpose. Go ahead and flag them.

Our goal on Ask Ubuntu is to generate good content that will help someone else in the future. A general rule of thumb is: if an answer adds something useful to the post it should probably stay.

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  • 3
    To 1. Why downvoting A's answer? Often even an answer this short helps to solve the problem - and sometimes fast help is of more need than exhaustive explanations
    – Ristridin
    Aug 25, 2014 at 9:38
  • 1
    @Ristridin You are absolutely right, which is why I said "sometimes" in my answer ;)
    – Seth
    Aug 25, 2014 at 14:05
  • reply to step3: And flag both answers(?) as "Not an answer" flag(?) or "VLQ" ? Oct 26, 2014 at 14:28
  • @KasiyA Which one do you think? If you read the description of the flags, VLQ doesn't really fit. Use NAA, or better, use a custom reason.
    – Seth
    Oct 26, 2014 at 14:41
  • Ok I used custom reason and was helpful and from this Can I flag other answer as NAA? deleted answer says that worked for him/her. but now I see that answer downvoted. why? Oct 26, 2014 at 14:44

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