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I had the following case:

  1. I reviewed a question, and decided that it is a duplicate of another question.
  2. I flagged it as a duplication of that question
  3. The question was edited and a comment was stated that the provided link doesn't answer the update question.
  4. I found another question which answer the update question
  5. I perform retract flag
  6. I tried to flag the question as duplicate of another question
  7. I figured out that I can't flag it again - You have retracted your recommended closure flag
  8. At the end I've added a comment that it might be a duplicate of the 2nd question.

My Question:

What should be done in similar case, when one mark a question as duplicate and afterwards he/she figure out that the duplicate flag should be pointed to a different question?

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  • I did not know these questions were allowed here. It's certainly not about Ubuntu and not specific to askubuntu. I believe meta SE would have been s better place. But it's a good question though.
    – wie5Ooma
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 21:22

1 Answer 1

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In this case, it's best if you left a comment on the post about the correct target, since the question is still open (and likely hasn't been voted on if you retracted the flag quickly enough).

If the question has been closed, only mods or users having a gold badge on one of the question's tags can change the close reason single-handedly.

Flagging for moderation attention would be unnecessary - unless it's a clear dupe, normal review procedure should be fine. You can ping a 3k user in chat to cast a vote for you if you feel your comment might not be noticed by other users. The Ubuntu Regulators chatroom is especially dedicated to closing questions.

I'm not sure about flagging, but retraction of close votes age away after 2 weeks, after which you can vote to close again. If you're willing to wait 2 weeks, that might also be an option.

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  • 1
    I'd say mod flagging in this case is fine. Users shouldn't have to hunt down 3k users to correct a situation like this, although I don't mind if they do.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 16:34
  • @Seth but a mod shouldn't have to decide whether a question is a dupe or not every time a user wanted to change their vote
    – muru
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 21:53
  • Correct, but if users are willy nilly changing their votes then we have other problems. In this case it is acceptable considering the OP has edited their question.
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 22:38

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