2

I have found OP1 (from 2019) How to Set Different Layouts for 2 Keyboards and OP2 Can I Set Different Languages to 2 Keyboards? (recent), which is an obvious dupe of OP1.

I mean to flag OP1 as a dupe, but I get a "greyed out" Vote to close button enter image description here

So, the fact that an original question does not have any upvoted or accepted answer precludes others being flagged as dupes. I don't see the rationale for this. The nature of a dupe would not depend on the answers, I guess.

1. Can someone explain the rationale?

Note 1: OP2 seems in turn a dupe of the linked OP3 Xsetkbmap, odd behaviour using the device option, as per this.

Note 2: I found a few questions Q1, Q2, ..., related to this one in Meta, but if I understand correctly they do not ask the same as I am asking here. Moreover, they seem to imply that the OPs of Q1, ..., do not see the limitation I am seeing

  1. Flagging Duplicate questions when answers are not accepted

  2. Should a question be flagged as duplicate even if the question (older) pointed to as the duplicate has no answers?

  3. Are we doing anything differently with duplicates when there is no answer?

2. Can someone explain why these other people can apparently flag dupes under conditions I cannot?

PS: 4. What should I do If I can't flag as duplicate because answer is neither accepted nor upvoted? sees the same limitation as I do.

3
  • 1
    AFAIK the rationale behind this limitation is because, if a question has an upvoted or accepted answer then it will be useful to the OP of the question being closed and likely provide them with an answer to their question. I think this is just a hold over from when SE was much smaller, the current volume of questions here makes it seem a bit counter intuitive. I can't seem to find a source for this but I am sure I have read about it in the past, if I find anything, I will post it.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 9:44
  • These links might be helpful: meta.stackexchange.com/q/165933 and meta.stackexchange.com/q/165928
    – Random Person
    Commented Jul 25, 2021 at 19:27
  • In meta.askubuntu.com/questions/12212/… , OP sees the same limitation you do.
    – muru
    Commented Jul 26, 2021 at 0:48

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Thanks to links in comments I can answer question 2.

The Beginning. 1 In the beginning Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky created Stackoverflow. 2 And they said, “Let there be dupe flagging,” and any question could be flagged as a dupe...

As per this, dated [Feb 2 '13 at 0:07] "Today, the behavior of duplicate close votes was changed so that a question can only be a duplicate close vote target if it has an upvoted or accepted answer", also confirmed here, dated [Feb 2 '13 at 0:29].

That is why

  1. Flagging Duplicate questions when answers are not accepted [Jul 30 '12 at 10:54]

  2. Should a question be flagged as duplicate even if the question (older) pointed to as the duplicate has no answers? [Aug 7 '12 at 12:52]

  3. Are we doing anything differently with duplicates when there is no answer? [Feb 1 '13 at 10:38]... This one was asked the day before the change, did it influence in any way the decision for a change?

do not see the limitation, and

  1. What should I do If I can't flag as duplicate because answer is neither accepted nor upvoted? [Nov 5 '14 at 17:32]

does.

Related:

Prevent Closing as duplicate when the duplicate has no accepted answer

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