Does generality matter when voting to close as duplicate?

Question

In this particular question a high reputation user has edited the post to prevent close votes. The particular quote:

To the close voters The question below does not ask for window positioning in general, but for only one specific situation. Answers that fit the linked dupe might (and are) overkill in this situation. Furthermore, possible answers here do not necessarily fit the linked dupe. The below posted one does not for one thing, hence no exact dupe.

I'm interested in these specific questions:

• Does the fact that duplicate is a general solution allow keeping the question open ? It is my understanding that we have canonical posts specifically for that reason - general answers, covering broad range of cases. Especially in the case of that particular post, I believe the specificity is unecessary - OP is using standard Ubuntu with Unity, hence no need to have custom solution, and solutions on duplicate target are sufficiently clear to allow a user achieve desired result. The fact that it is a nautilus window also doesn't matter - X11 windows are treated equally.
• The edit claims "Answers that fit the linked dupe might (and are) overkill". Is it a reasonable to have question open when answers on duplicate are "overkill". The claim that solutions on suggested duplicate are overkill seems to be overplayed, since an answer using same approach as on duplicate has been posted as well. From the standpoint of "teach man how to fish" saying, it would be better (in my opinion) to provide general solutions
• Concerning this part: "Furthermore, possible answers here do not necessarily fit the linked dupe." Does the fact that solutions posted on new answer not fit for suggested duplicate matter ? Does the fact that a solution made specific warrant keeping question from being closed using a general approach ?

Please note: What I am looking for is general answer. I am not necessarily concerned with the specific case of that post, although it can be used as example.

Answer 1

A general answer:

Yes and No. This has been discussed in this meta post. and another very good related meta post here.

My take on this in a nutshell, is that the approach should be customer service based. If you can help someone more effectively by flagging their question as a dupe, you should do so. If however you think that you can be most helpful by providing a specific answer you should do that.

I have no doubt that some may think this an over simplistic view and perhaps it is, but if so, it's only because I'm eager to help. To be honest I can't imagine how any action taken trying to improve the site could be construed in a negative fashion.

Here's the point by point response:

Does the fact that duplicate is a general solution allow keeping the question open?

Yes and No. The answer to that is decided by the community and varies depending on the post and the views of those voting. As noted in the meta posts I linked above, duplicates are a complex issue and are as unlikely to go away as they are unlikely to get unanimous agreement on what is and isn't a duplicate.

Is it a reasonable to have question open when answers on duplicate are "overkill?".

Absolutely. For example, A common answer to almost any problem might be "re-install Ubuntu". I would argue that in most cases this solution lacks finesse and while easy to recommend is likely more time consuming and less helpful to the member asking than a less invasive, surgical approach that addresses his or her question exactly.

Does the fact that solutions posted on new answer not fit for suggested duplicate matter ?

Probably. Answers specific to the members situation should in theory be more effective than answers covering a general situation. Granted some of us are quite capable of extrapolating a general solution to our current situation, but since no all of us are exceptionally good at this, sometimes a tailored approach is required to provide the highest level of service.

Does the fact that a solution made specific warrant keeping question from being closed using a general approach ?

Again, Yes and No. You are well within your rights to vote to close such questions just as others who disagree are well within their rights to vote to keep it open. The benefit of having various answers to a question goes beyond the obvious (that one answer may work better than another for a specific individual) but also extends to the educational value of, as you say "teaching a man to fish"

Answer 2

As always, there is no one-fits-all answer to the question. There are however some important general considerations to keep in mind to decide.

Should we keep a separate question for each and every specific situation?

In general: no. That is: if both the question and its answers are nothing more than a subset of the canonical one. Many questions are unnecessarily specific, and possible answers would be a 1:1 repetition of answers posted elsewhere, e.g.:

• questions with unnecessary version tags
• questions like "how do I rename peanut.txt to butter.txt", duped to "how do I rename monkey.txt to banana.txt".

In these examples, specific versions of a question are nothing more then a subset of the obvious general idea.

Why is your example not just a subset of the suggested dupe?

In your example however, the specific question has a reason not to be treated as a dupe. Nautilus is specifically mentioned in the question, which allows for different solution(s), which do not apply to the general version about all windows:

In general, the time between calling a window and its appearance is unpredictable, and depends on the application, the file it possibly opens and the processor occupation. If I press Ctrl+Alt+T, the terminal instantly pops up, if I call Inkscape, I possibly have to wait 5-10 seconds. This implies that, if I use a catch-all solution, at least until the time the window appears, I need to run a background process to wait for the window and take care of its placement. I can do that either by a smart wrapper or, like in the answers in the suggested dupe, let compiz do the job.

In this nautilus-specific question, We have other options. If I run the command nautilus ~ a 1000 times in normal usage, probably not a single occasion will exceed 0.5 second. This opens the option to use other solutions, and the question is therefore more then just a subset of the general one.

Your line:

The fact that it is a nautilus window also doesn't matter - X11 windows are treated equally

is therefore simply untrue; it does matter, only not to the generalized solution you have in mind.

Furthermore:

Does the fact that solutions posted on new answer not fit for suggested duplicate matter? Does the fact that a solution made specific warrant keeping question from being closed using a general approach?

Absolutely!

If we force people to use only generalized solutions, we are doing exactly what you mention not to want: "imposing particular user's personal opinion on others". We are not here to sell one pill for every disease. Let the doctor decide, which is OP and future readers of the post.