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Alot of times I'll see questions, often linked to by other duplicate questions (that are usually not actually duplicates, but that's a different issue) that are closed or locked after being marked as duplicate or for other reasons. There will be a few comments relating to the locking, but no answers.

As these questions are officially the same as the duplicates, and because the duplicates have answers and aren't locked, why do the orphan questions even get linked to? They seem to be completely useless.

Looking at the specific question that caused me to ask this, it was actually "merged" with the duplicate. Even so, it still doesn't serve any purpose that I can tell.

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    I do not know the answer to your question, but, if you, or the OP feels the question is NOT a duplicate, s/he should specify WHY it is not a duplicate and it can be re-opened. Without input from the OP it is assumed "close enough" to be a duplicate. If you have a specific example, post it here. Closed questions marked as a duplicate server a purpose -> they point to the answer.
    – Panther
    Commented Jul 3, 2015 at 16:47

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Reset to default
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These "orphans" serve a purpose and that is to direct people who think they have some kind of problem, to another kind of problem that has a solution...

E.g.:

  • My screen acts funny → How to install the correct modules
  • My WiFi disconnects → Install this particular module for this particular card
  • wubi acts funny under 15.04 → How to install Ubuntu (wubi is deprecated)

and then the correct solution can be upvoted and rises to the top in the search results...

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    Ah ok that makes sense. I didn't think of it that way. Thanks.
    – Prime624
    Commented Jul 6, 2015 at 1:35

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