Is copying and pasting your own answer acceptable?

Question

In order to answer a question, I copied and pasted my own answer from another question, modifying it slightly so as to fit the fact that the question was put differently. At the same time I also voted to close the answer as a duplicate of the other question, figuring that my mostly copy-pasted answer would suffice in the meantime until others agreed with my decision to close as duplicate.

My answer was deleted by a moderator who gave me a public warning not to copy and paste answers: "especially my own".

Now, I've been a member of stackoverflow.com for a long time, and copying and pasting your own answer there is (or was) fine: encouraged, even. I've done it many times and it's always been received positively, because let's face it, there is a lot of redundancy in many questions, where the questions aren't necessarily the same, but often the same information can be re-used. And when I do it, it helps people. I've often re-cycled the same answer, changing parts of it in order to make it relevant to the different question.

Was this moderator wrong to warn me for doing this, or was I in the wrong for re-using parts of my answers?

Comments were disabled on my deleted answer so I had no right of reply to the moderator, which seemed a little unfair, especially since his telling me off seemed a bit rude (edit: he has since replied to me in a comment on the question, which is good, though I still disagree with him in principle about whether I did something wrong).

The answer in question is here. I'm not sure if other members are able to see it:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/517466/ubuntu-claims-its-out-of-space/517469?noredirect=1#comment702517_517469

Please feel free to tell it however you feel it: if consensus is that copying parts of your own answers is wrong here, I'll be happy to accept it.

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Edit: most people seem to have fixated on the fact that the question should have been marked as duplicate, rather than whether or not it was wrong for me to provide a partly copy-pasted answer from another question. I am not asking whether it should have been marked as duplicate - I did mark it as duplicate. What I was told off for was not that I did/didn't mark it as a dupe, but that I copy-pasted from my own answer.

Answer 1

I copied and pasted my own answer from another question, modifying it slightly so as to fit the fact that the question was put differently.

I have 5 answers that are more or less 80% the same answer, just trimmed and chopped and regurgitated to different proposes, which off the top of my head only remember two:

• I can boot Ubuntu only if I plug my USB
• How to move GRUB to a new disk

You would notice a common topic between them (namely the bootloader (GRUB)), yet, the question are different in propose and cause. So yes, you can reuse your answers so long you answer different questions.

The fact that the same answer can solve both, doesn't automatically make them duplicated.

Answer 2

I'd have no problem with you posting the same answer a million times over as long as they answered different questions. This is a case where it is not only clear that they are duplicate but also that you knew the older question existed because you posted to both within a matter of minutes.

If you were a new user, yeah, I'd probably suggest more delicate handling. We try to spend some time with new users explaining how the system works... But as you point out, you've got 65K of network reputation. You should have an idea that the massive duplicate system that exists on these sites isn't there just to be ignored.

And in terms of how we handle communication with users of deleted posts, the comments are sincerely not supposed to be a public lambasting. Some other people can see them but —save for when people open a meta question about it— very few people actually ever see the deleted post. We just want you to know why we're doing stuff so we don't get "Why did a moderator rudely delete my answer?!" meta-questions.

In short: The comment could have been more explanatory but you should probably know better too.

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In terms of the duplicate process, when you mark something as duplicate, it leaves a comment for the OP. This is more than enough. You don't need to copy your (or every other answer) over. That's not desirable for anybody.

If the question is closed as duplicate, that comment is deleted and converted into the header you see above the question. That is what happened here:

Answer 3

Without looking at the topic it is about: if you can copy the answer the question is (more than likely) a duplicate and should be flagged as such.

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Was this moderator wrong to warn me for doing this, or was I in the wrong for re-using parts of my answers?

My opinion? no and yes.

Comments were disabled on my deleted answer so I had no right of reply to the moderator, which seemed a little unfair, especially since his telling me off seemed a bit rude

In general I consider it not a good idea to use comments, questions and even meta for discussions about a moderation (mods probably will state to use meta). I would have done this in AU Chat to ask about this.

fossfreedom is not that bad a moderator and I am sure you are reading his comment in a way that seems to tick you off but that was not intended as such.