Questions tagged [duplicates]

Any two or more questions which cover the same topics and/details and can be answered by one of the existing questions.

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37 votes
6 answers
1k views

What are common canonical questions for our site?

So according to the Gospel of Spolsky 13:4, a core mission of Stack Exchange communities is to stop re-answering the same questions, and instead build a library of canonical answers. When general ...
Jjed's user avatar
  • 13.9k
19 votes
1 answer
373 views

Don't start to vote for closing as duplicate for questions whose answers can't be merged

I've seen this more than once. A question with a very weird dependency issue, got an answer to it's specific problem, and later on (sometimes months), someone votes to close it against the super ...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 67.7k
16 votes
1 answer
132 views

How do I quickly find the duplicate questions I'm searching for when flagging/closing?

I don't like the search box when I'm flagging for a duplicate, because I don't know the exact names of the big questions. Even if I use very relevant keywords, the question that I want to pick is ...
Alaa Ali's user avatar
  • 31.5k
10 votes
4 answers
272 views

Should we downvote duplicate questions?

I have been around for a few months now. What I notice is that the same questions keep on being asked over and over again. For instance about what ubuntu version to use, problems to install, questions ...
don.joey's user avatar
  • 28.7k
8 votes
2 answers
336 views

Where is the link to the original question when a question is closed as a duplicate?

I've looked for how to remove the unity dock from my new installation and have found two answers that were closed as exact duplicates of previous questions. What previous questions? Please update ...
NewUbuntu11.10Installed's user avatar
47 votes
1 answer
507 views

Please read -and think- before you mark as a dupe

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 ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 83.6k
15 votes
4 answers
282 views

How to handle duplicate answers that add nothing?

I'm not talking about exact copying, failure to give credit, or one person passing off another person's answer as their own. Rather, I'd like to know what the best practice is when one user answers a ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
340 views

Is it okay to both answer and mark a question as duplicate?

When I find that a question is duplicate, I just caste a vote to close it. But sometimes I've got another answer to that question, in that case first I vote to close then I post my answer on the ...
Ravexina's user avatar
  • 55.6k
8 votes
1 answer
267 views

Finding questions that other questions have been closed as a dupe of

Is there a way to find questions with a high closed as dupe points here count? If there were, I think it would be a great way to get a list of questions for people with close-votes without as much ...
RobotHumans's user avatar
  • 29.5k
3 votes
1 answer
91 views

Duplicate circle?

I was just casting a duplicate close vote on this question when I got this notice: What does it mean and how should I proceed?
user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
154 views

Windows 8 and Ubuntu Dual-boot: Many duplicates

It seems to me that Ask Ubuntu is flooded with questions about Windows 8 and Ubuntu dual-booting systems. Should we be concerned about SE quality and over-asked questions? Here are two examples, (...
Devyn Collier Johnson's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
594 views

Me-too post? Or partial answer?

Where do we draw the line between "I'm having the same problem, too" posts and partial answers? This answer and its comments are what have motivated me to ask this. But I'm hoping for a ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
12 votes
4 answers
396 views

Messages to close voters in questions: are they OK?

It is occasional practice of some users to place message along the lines CLOSE VOTERS: please don't close this as duplicate because it is not because A,B,C. My question is this: Are we OK with ...
Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy's user avatar
12 votes
3 answers
267 views

what's up with duplicate answers?

Have a look at, for instance, this question. Someone asked for a text equivalent to wireshark, and I answered "tshark". Then some time later, someone else comes along and posts a second answer ...
poolie's user avatar
  • 9,251
12 votes
0 answers
539 views

Let's stop using "How do I resolve unmet dependencies?" for dpkg questions (and probably for most apt questions)

The most used close target for apt/dpkg questions is this. However, that does not help if the problem is not with apt but with the underlying dpkg. I very often find things like these when I check ...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 67.7k
8 votes
2 answers
263 views

Are there certain circumstances where one should close an old question as the duplicate of a new one?

Are there certain circumstances where one should close an old question as the duplicate of a new one (for instance if the new one is better and actually has answers)? And if not, then why does the ...
user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
101 views

Where do I find the links for duplicate questions?

In general, where are links to duplicate questions located when a post is tagged as a duplicate? This link is just an example of one of the many times I've been unable to find the duplicate: Where ...
NW_Photo_Laureate's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
190 views

When we see a potential duplicate, how should we handle it when we don't have proper privileges?

When we spot a duplicate question, what is the best way to handle it? Of course if we have a huge reputation, we can just do it, but when we don't have enough reputation we should have ways to notify ...
Huygens's user avatar
  • 4,713
2 votes
1 answer
106 views

I've found a duplicate user; what should I do?

I just stumbled upon this question: I can't install Ubuntu 13.04 on a new computer And in the sidebar for this question I found this Related question: I can't install Ubuntu 13.04 on a new ...
strugee's user avatar
  • 1,092
34 votes
1 answer
1k views

Don't be too eager to answer a question you know the answer of

Readme This question is not a personal complaint towards anyone. That's the reason I'd rather not give examples and I don't think I need to. The question is a call to be a bit more aware of what we ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 83.6k
18 votes
1 answer
355 views

Let's consolidate "black screen on boot" questions

We have 858 questions about this, it's probably time to consolidate this into one good CW and start duping things instead of having it all over the site, so we made this: My computer boots to a ...
Jorge Castro's user avatar
  • 71.7k
16 votes
2 answers
266 views

What can we do about high traffic duplicates?

Upgrade Ubuntu 10.04 to 11.04 is a duplicate question, merged with the more general How to Upgrade from a very old release to the latest. The problem? How to Upgrade has about nine thousand views. ...
Jjed's user avatar
  • 13.9k
15 votes
2 answers
254 views

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

I have encountered this predicament when reviewing posted questions and answers on AU. Should I flag a question as a duplicate even if the older question pointed to as the duplicate has no answers ...
Peachy's user avatar
  • 7,117
15 votes
1 answer
387 views

Please don't be too eager to delete duplicates

On the occasion of this question, about losing rep over deletion of this one Rubbish does not belong on the site. After a question has been marked as unclear, off-topic or too broad, one might ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 83.6k
14 votes
3 answers
288 views

Why is it allowed for an older question to be marked as a duplicate of a newer question?

This is my question, asked way back in 2010 with a lot of upvotes and many useful answers. In late July of this year it was marked as a duplicate of this question, filed in 2013. Why was this done? ...
javanix's user avatar
  • 1,783
13 votes
2 answers
234 views

Do we need a canonical partition recovery question? How shall we make it?

We have many questions about how to recover a whole partition. Typically it's an NTFS partition, destroyed by telling Ubiquity to install Ubuntu using the entire disk instead of alongside other ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
94 views

How Do I Get My Question Unmarked As Duplicate?

I tend to use Stack Overflow rather than Ask Ubuntu so although my post count is low here I do have a good appreciation of the Stack Exchange sites and asking "good" questions. My question How Do I ...
opticyclic's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
261 views

Duplicate question note

As regular way I used to, I got interested in a question then I looked for duplicates. 2 other similar questions without answers. I've an answer so to post it, I had checked reputations, last login, ...
user.dz's user avatar
  • 48k
9 votes
3 answers
100 views

Should duplicates be merged into the newer or older question?

My first thought would be the newer question is merged into the older one, which has had more time to gather bookmarks and search engine rankings, and it is the second question that is at fault. ...
Lewis Goddard's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
256 views

Dupe but no dupe

Marking/closing questions as a duplicate is a delicate subject, and there is a thin line between whether a post is a duplicate or not. This one however hurts my eyes. While OP clearly mentions he ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 83.6k
8 votes
2 answers
210 views

Which questions should be duplicated and which not? [duplicate]

There has been some discussion over the issue of questions being flagged as duplicate. There was a issue been brought up. Question should not be flagged duplicate if answers can't be merged. As an ...
Registered User's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
127 views

How to handle chains of "duplicate of..."?

Sometimes one post (P1) is commented "possible duplicate of P2". P2 itself is commented "possible duplicate of P3". Example: https://askubuntu.com/questions/246610/how-to-increase-battery-duration-...
guntbert's user avatar
  • 8,486
7 votes
1 answer
198 views

Failed first post audit by flagging as a duplicate. Is it correct?

While reviewing the first posts queue, I failed the following audit: https://askubuntu.com/review/first-posts/799873 After I looked at the question, I just thought: “That must have been answered ...
Melebius's user avatar
  • 11.4k
6 votes
3 answers
179 views

How can a new user escalate an old unanswered question?

This question comes via an anonymous submission to Ask Slashdot: The problem with "Ask Ubuntu" Say a new user has a problem, searches Ask Ubuntu and the UNIX site for a solution, and comes across an ...
Damian Yerrick's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
99 views

My question is marked as duplicate, what does this mean?

A user marked one of my questions as duplicate, I don't really understand if I have to do something about that or what ???
Septrba's user avatar
  • 43
3 votes
2 answers
66 views

Duplicate questions

If I want to ask a question that has already been asked,but I can't understand its solution.Should I comment there for more explanation or ask mine by adding duplicate by myself.
Rahul Raj's user avatar
  • 610
3 votes
0 answers
183 views

Some merge candidates for Windows 7 and Ubuntu dual-booting questions

This looked a bit unwieldy for flagging, so I'm posting this here instead. I've looked through several of the dual-boot questions, trying to find ones that looked like duplicates. I have found ...
belacqua's user avatar
  • 23.1k
2 votes
2 answers
73 views

Merging difficulty

MY question is how difficult is it to merge questions? Over my time here I've requested merging on a number of questions. I recently ran across this question which I flagged as duplicate after ...
Elder Geek's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
83 views

Reopen 388541 that asks the why's not the how's

This question of mine was closed on the basis that I'm asking the same question... I'm not. I specifically ask the "Why apt-get install update fails" (which normally people try to update their systems)...
Braiam's user avatar
  • 67.7k
2 votes
3 answers
104 views

Duplicates Policy Incentivizes Clutter Rather Than Canonical

Disadvantages of Current Duplicates Policy Stated briefly, the current policy encourages proliferation over pruning. The disadvantages of the current duplicates policy stem from the fact that it is ...
jtd's user avatar
  • 2,375
2 votes
1 answer
73 views

Should a question be closed as duplicate of another when it is asking for the same goal but via a different route?

I recently closed a question as a duplicate of another, however I am starting to think that I may have made a mistake here along with the other close voters... So just to make it easier, let's refer ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
51 views

Different types of Duplicate question?

I have recently noticed two types of questions marked as duplicate, the both have [Duplicate] in the title, and they both have something like this at the bottom: However the first one has this at the ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
46 views

How to deal with higher quality duplicate questions?

Occasionally on a stack exchange, one will have a very precise question cited as a duplicate to a very broad question, or one will have a very clear and straight to the point question cited as a ...
Anon's user avatar
  • 12.1k
1 vote
2 answers
65 views

Can older questions be closed as duplicates of newer questions in special circumstances on meta?

Here on meta, sometimes issues arise, and then arise again later as circumstances change. Is it appropriate, in such a situation, to close older questions about a topic as duplicates of a newer ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
108 views

Closed as exact duplicate -> where is the solution?

Mu question Can I do an install onto a 4GB usb stick which is smaller than the recommended installation size? was closed as exact duplicate with a url to possible duplicate answer. Currently I have ...
Radek's user avatar
  • 175