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I believe in the voting system, but not as a result of this:

A while ago, this question was asked. In short, in a multi- monitor setup, OP wants to have new windows appear on the screen he is currently working on. That could be the left, but also the right one, depending on where I am currently working on.

You would say...

...that is obviously different from having a fixed default screen to have new windows appear on.
To my surprise, someone voted to close it as a dupe of this one however.
Accidents happen, we can't always be awake, so I decided to add a comment, to explain why it isn't a dupe.

The close voting happily went on, so I decided to add a more prominent section to the question, with the same explanation:

N.B. This is NOT about setting the default monitor. I want new windows to appear on the screen I am currently working on, which is dynamically changing, and not necessarily the default monitor.

To my astonishment, I found the question closed as a dupe of an obviously different question. With the message clearly in front, five people misread the question

Come on people, it's been a long day of hard work, I am exhausted. Probably tomorrow I'll regret the tone of this post. I am pretty sure however I won't be about the tenor: If voting is done in this superficial manner, what do we need to do to keep a question open?

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    A lot of people probably just vote to close everything in the queue, they probably don't even read the questions... There probably should be audits done for dupes too, but currently SE has not implemented such a feature.
    – user364819
    Commented Apr 23, 2016 at 21:49
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    People are happy to vote as duplicated anything they find, whenever is a dupe or not. Related meta.askubuntu.com/q/12138/169736 meta.askubuntu.com/q/8830/169736
    – Braiam
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 4:27
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    I won't give you any excuses, it was a mistake, and yes I should've read the question carefully, before marking it as Dup. I do apologize for that. But looking at a screen almost 24 hours a day, makes you see things the wrong way :). Again, thanks for bringing this up, because we all should stop, look, and read to make sure that we do a good job. Thanks.
    – Mitch Mod
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 6:23
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    Hi @Mitch I know you too well to not understand it was a mistake in your case. You know I admire the work of the moderators, and your comment proves once again the integrity in what you do. I appreciate it a lot.
    – Jacob Vlijm
    Commented Apr 24, 2016 at 6:38
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    @Mitch No offense, but, if you are looking at a screen for so many hours a day and it is causing you to make mistakes... take a break. They don't chain you to the desk do they? Mistakes are far, far worse than waiting till the morning to get something done, no?
    – Shane
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 18:06
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    @Shane Although I felt cranky at the moment of posting, the post was not so much meant as a personal complaint to (any of) the close voters. It was a call to improve the general awareness while voting. "They don't chain you to the desk do they?" yes, we do. The heaps of flags, votes, quarrels and so on are the work of moderators. We are the ones who can take a break whenever we like.
    – Jacob Vlijm
    Commented Apr 26, 2016 at 18:21
  • @Mitch I think that the "long screen timing" stuff was intended as an explanation and that he/she will look froward to address the problem. A simple get that fixed bro would be more adequate to his sincerity. Happy Llamas!!!
    – userDepth
    Commented Apr 29, 2016 at 12:21

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I think some people may be focusing on quantity rather than quality and skim the content rather than take the necessary time to actually read and comprehend. I believe that the reason behind the voting system is that any of us is capable of making a mistake and hopefully someone will catch it and leave a comment to close voters as was done in this case. If I'm not certain a question is a duplicate but find something that might be helpful, I will leave a comment such as "Related: rather then flag as a dupe or pile on with the close voters. I believe this to be a logical approach. If you agree or disagree I would appreciate comments as to why.

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    Indeed I think time pressure and the quantity of the marked posts in queue are factors that increase the risk of mistakes. I cannot say I never made a mistake. I am pretty sure I did and will make more the future. That is why I think it is important that we all keep an eye on if a post is incorrectly marked, on the subject(s) we are familiar with. For that reason, before voting, I always take a quick look through the comments for possible messages in that direction.
    – Jacob Vlijm
    Commented Apr 29, 2016 at 7:35

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