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There has been some discussion over the issue of questions being flagged as duplicate. There was a issue been brought up.

Question should not be flagged duplicate if answers can't be merged.

As an extension to the above question, I have following questions.

Do we flag duplicate questions or duplicate answers?

Lets consider two imaginary questions

  • How to install chrome from .deb file?
  • How to install firefox from .deb file?

Both the above questions have same answers sudo dpkg -i filename.deb.

Now should these questions be flagged duplicate?(question is different, answer is same)

What should be done when the flagger is not sure about OP's problem?

Say I find a question with body "I am getting dependency issue, this-this is the error message".

Should I first try to understand the problem of OP or just flag it with the master question and leave it to OP so that he/she should prove why it isn't duplicate.

Is it necessary that questions flagged dup be merged?

Can they just remainas they are, owning there own answers proudly and one would point to other?(I'm well aware that non users are automatically diverted to master question)

What when a user posts same question twice?

Sometimes a user may post same question twice. Assuming that first question is unanswered, what do you do in such cases?

There were some more question, but I don't remember the others. These are all for now.

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Do we flag duplicate questions or duplicate answers?

Always questions! Duplicated means that the same question was asked before, not that the same answer applies. Consider the following: a hammer can solve many problems, but not all problems can be solved with a hammer. You can suggest OP to look at some question, that may be relevant/related to the topic asked, but that doesn't means they are duplicates.

What should be done when the flagger is not sure about OP's problem?

When in doubt, don't! If you are not sure what OP is asking, leave a comment so he clarifies his problem and possibly cast a "unclear" flag.

Is it necessary that questions flagged dup be merged?

Yes. All information ideally should be in a single question, not scattered across all the site. The merge was meant for questions that gathered good answers before being closed to be kept in a single place.

An answer can go beyond the immediate question and touched on a peripheral topic. One paragraph in one answer doesn't make a duplicate. Questions are only duplicates if they have substantially identical answers, not if one answer happens to contain enough material to answer the second one. (This is a quote of Gilles, but I can't find it)

What when a user posts same question twice?

The system allow us to close questions of the same asker as duplicates even if there's no answer in any of them. You just have to use that.

More about the topic: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/11/dr-strangedupe-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-duplication/

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Do we flag duplicate questions or duplicate answers?

Generally, we should flag duplicate questions, but I consider that both your sample questions are duplicate of general "How to install X from .deb". My idea about this that marking Q as dup should be useful for OP. Also, it has to keep your time for answering really interesting Q's rather then copy-pasting the same answer in order to munchkin your rep.

What should be done when the flagger is not sure about OP's problem?

When you are not sure, it is better to become sure before flagging, but I am rarely being not sure. When you spend a lot of time answering you learn to find duplicates easily. And the reward for helping should be the knowledge, not the rep. But if you eager to earn rep you should be absolutely sure that the Q is not dup, because someone apparently will mark it and if the OP will satisfy himself with the link you will waste your time.

Is it necessary that questions flagged dup be merged?

Some of them should be merged if they are exact duplicates and if dup collected worth-keeping answers. Anyway, it's the moderators' decision.

What when a user posts same question twice?

When the user posts the same question twice you should flag it and leave comment under.

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! You have posted the same question twice. Please don't do this. You can achieve more attention editing your first question. When you get enough reputation you will be able to add bounty to your question. If it doesn't help, you have selected wrong place. Try to use paid support or submit a bug report. Instructions are here and here. Thanks!

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