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This same question has been asked, left unanswered, and marked as too localized. See (question is duplicate of what, precisely? [closed])

I don't see how the original question or this one is too localized. This one is a duplicate because the original one was not answered.

To be more specific, when I find a question marked as a duplicate, I still need an answer. If the duplicate answers my question, I need the link to that question.

It is important to note that many of us come here after using a search engine like Google. I personally find the search function on many Ubuntu and Linux forums to be less functional than Google. Please consider making it a prerequisite that one must enter the duplicate question in order to mark a duplicate, and that the duplicate link always appears where the duplicate notice appears.

This would be very similar to marking bugs as duplicates. Instead of the message saying this question has been marked as a duplicate, the message should say this question has been marked as a duplicate of {question with link}.

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The link is always provided when marking a question as duplicate. There's absolutely no point in marking/flagging as duplicate without providing a link to the master question. It appears inside a banner before the body of the question. The banner is automatically inserted by the system.

duplicate example

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    I might add that it's noted in a comment as possible duplicate until it is actually closed
    – RobotHumans
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 20:52
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    @CallmeV: I wanted to add that, but the possible duplicate comment is not inserted automatically if a user with less than 3000 rep flags the post as Duplicate and doesn't leave the comment himself manually. And then when it is voted upon by the users having the privilege to VTC who take the action upon flag, the auto generated possible duplicate comment is not posted either.
    – Aditya
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 20:59
  • Then perhaps this question should be on MSO as a feature-request/bug...
    – RobotHumans
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 21:17
  • @CallmeV: Right. I would confirm this behaviour once again and post it on MSO... I had just been thinking about it.
    – Aditya
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 21:20
  • People are going to keep asking this question until it is fixed in a logical way. Yes, often the link is at the top of the page, but sometimes it is not. I realize that it is next to impossible to fix all of the questions without a link to the original question that the duplicate is supposed to duplicate. I suppose someone could run a script on the database, but finding the originals would involve much manual searching. Is there a way to clean up duplicates that don't reference an answer? I'm trying to elicit a discussion here and reach a consensus to make this site work better in the end.
    – Thomas Sisson
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 22:12
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    @thomassisson: It's impossible to mark a question as duplicate without giving a link to the duplicate target. You must be confusing with other close reasons - not constructive, off topic, NARQ, too localized. See the faq.
    – Aditya
    Commented Apr 16, 2013 at 22:40

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