If a user post the same question multiple times in quick succession, words them differently, but ultimately asks the same thing, what should I do ?
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3 Answers
I would close all but one as a duplicate of that one.
Now how to chose the question to remain open?
In my opinion, you should decide according to those points, in that order:
- Most detailed question
- Question with most/best answers
- Question with most/best comments
- Oldest question
(So if one question is much more detailed than the others, I'd keep that one. But if they're about equal, I'd go for the one with the most/best reactions so far. If there are no useful reactions yet, leave the oldest question open and mark the newer ones as duplicate of that.)
This scheme represents my opinion and how I would react in that situation. Feel free to criticize or comment it, I am looking forward to further opinions.
answered Jul 21, 2015 at 11:58
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In this specific case, I would close Alsa not working at all as duplicate of Sound not working at all, as the second one is definitely more detailed than the first one, although it is newer (which is a less important point in my decision scheme). And at the moment, none of them has any reactions yet, so we can't compare them at those points.– Byte Commander ModCommented Jul 21, 2015 at 12:01
As pointed out in other answers flag all but one to be closed keeping the best one. But I would also add a comment as to why you are closing it.
Unfortunately lots of people will ask a new question because they didn't get an answer and will assume that asking a new question is the best way to get people to look at it.
They may not realise that by editing the question with new information on what they have tried and the results they can get it appearing near the top of the list again.
The other way to get a question priority is to put a bounty on it. There are people on this site who will put a bounty on other peoples questions if the question is well written, clear and you ask them nicely.
Just flag one as the duplicate of the other, preferably flag the latter as a duplicate of the former.
When I have done this before I have found that the questions which are marked as duplicate get deleted as it is noticed that they are exactly they same (more or less) as the first one.