23
votes
"Dupes" accross StackExchange sites - How to treat them?
Short answer:
I believe cross-dupes not only are acceptable, but a small overlap is even useful:
If the scopes of the sites overlap, so should their content.
While a minor overlap does no harm at all,...
- 82.6k
20
votes
Accepted
The question is the same as mine, the accepted answer does not apply to me, how can I raise my own case?
If the answers there do not meet your needs, asking a new question is fine but it is on YOU to explain why the existing question does not meet your needs.
Include this information in your new ...
- 18.3k
20
votes
Accepted
Are duplicate questions hidden now?
The recent change to post notices does not change which posts are visible. It changes what information about their closure is visible. When you're logged in, you've probably seen text in post notices ...
- 117k
18
votes
Why is it allowed for an older question to be marked as a duplicate of a newer question?
It has less to do with the age of the posts and more with the quality.
As you can see, the newer question has a couple of high quality answers, which go into a decent amount of detail around >, 1&...
- 60.1k
16
votes
Accepted
How to deal with users that won't mark duplicate but instead copy-paste their answers agan and again
Personally I don't upvote answers to questions which are clearly duplicates ("clearly" = I can find an almost exact duplicate in the first three pages using the search function or in the first page ...
- 35.6k
16
votes
Is it okay to both answer and mark a question as duplicate?
I can see situations where answering and closing would be the right option.
There are some processes that are pretty daunting to new users. Boot errors, graphics driver foul ups, random crashes. You ...
OliMod
- 290k
15
votes
Accepted
How Do I Get My Question Unmarked As Duplicate?
Asking here on meta is one way, asking in chat is another. But the best way to get your question reopened is to edit it with an explanation of why it isn't a duplicate. Comments are good but edits ...
- 57.3k
15
votes
Formal policy on duplicate/similar answers for similar questions on Ask Ubuntu?
If your answer is addressing the specifics of the current question and is sufficiently different, then yes, it may well be better to post it. Sometimes, you can post your answer addressing the ...
- 98.3k
15
votes
Accepted
Failed first post audit by flagging as a duplicate. Is it correct?
It's just a duplicate that went hot before anybody found the dupe. The audit system frowns on downvoting or closing posts it picked as examples of good posts, even if they are legitimate actions. It's ...
- 194k
14
votes
Accepted
My question was marked a dupe, even though it was asked first?
Sorry, this is the norm.
We want the best answers for people - and good questions attract good answers.
So having a bad question redirect to a good one is much better than the other way round - and ...
- 32.3k
14
votes
Accepted
Are there certain circumstances where one should close an old question as the duplicate of a new one?
Absolutely. The age of a question is completely irrelevant when choosing duplicates. What we want is the best, most comprehensive and inclusive answer. If a question asked today has better answers ...
- 98.3k
14
votes
Accepted
How to handle bad title of original question?
To generalize:
If the question has a bad title, edit it
if a question's title is an obstacle to find the real content of it, I edit it into a more appropriate title. You can think of the following ...
- 82.6k
14
votes
Accepted
Is it okay to both answer and mark a question as duplicate?
Provided a question is a clear duplicate to an existing question.
What is ok
vote to close as duplicate. This will immediately direct the OP to the solutions posted there.
add an own answer to the ...
- 141k
13
votes
Accepted
What will happen when all questions are asked?
When that happens I will unleash my 42 special questions that I have in store but only for very special occasions such as this one.
Each of this questions will trigger sleeper ubuntu agents in the ...
- 209k
12
votes
"Dupes" accross StackExchange sites - How to treat them?
Personally, I think that the best solution would be to develop a way of sharing questions across all sites where they're on topic. The rules against cross-posting were developed back in the days when ...
- 98.3k
12
votes
Messages to close voters in questions: are they OK?
We encourage users to explain what they've tried, what didn't work.
In the case of something like your example:
CLOSE VOTERS: please don't close this as duplicate because it is not because A,B,C.
...
OliMod
- 290k
12
votes
Why does an AskUbuntu question mirror a UbuntuForums.org thread?
I regularly see the same question asked by the same user in both places. I think they believe that it increases the chance for a good answer as more eyes see it. It probably does. I can't blame them ...
- 59.1k
12
votes
Please un-mark my question a duplicate
Yes, you're right that your question wasn't a duplicate of the linked question, because you already enabled the repositories that provide "ddeb" debug symbol packages (the -dbgsym packages), ...
- 117k
12
votes
Where do I find the links for duplicate questions?
Links to duplicate questions can be found directly beneath the question title at the beginning of the question body:
- 39.5k
12
votes
Guidance does not exist here
Look right under the question's title where it links to its duplicate question:
This question already has an answer here:
Enable graphics card in VirtualBox 3 answers
- 111k
11
votes
What will happen when all questions are asked?
As long as Ubuntu keep evolving that won't happen. Because there will always be new features to ask questions about.
- 75.9k
11
votes
Mass duplicate flagging of "What kernel version does ubuntu X ship with?"
Questions that are actually of the simple form which kernel does major version come with? may, I think, be closed as duplicates without any meaningful loss.
However, questions like Which Ubuntu ...
ZannaMod
- 69.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Question correctly flagged as duplicate, should I delete it?
Good quality duplicates are good. You can leave your question there. Other people might land on your post and find the excellent answers posted to the other one through the link.
ZannaMod
- 69.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Should questions be closed as duplicate only because of the helpfulness of answers?
Most opinions I have seen about this say that questions are duplicates, not answers. Therefore, questions should only be closed as a duplicate when they are the same, not because the answer to one is ...
- 194k
10
votes
How to deal with users that won't mark duplicate but instead copy-paste their answers agan and again
I am fine with it if the answer might be the same but the questions are not really duplicates of each other. Like two different problems but only one solution that works for both.
If also the ...
- 106k
10
votes
My question was marked a dupe, even though it was asked first?
Just the opposite: it reflects good on you: it means it's a worthy question that others will find through Google and then will be directed to the question that does have an answer.
And that also ...
- 34.4k
10
votes
Please don't be too eager to delete duplicates
I asked a Meta Stack Exchange question about this recently.
I'm not eager to delete dupes at all. Dupes are awesome and deleting them indiscriminately or just for being dupes would be terribad. To ...
ZannaMod
- 69.3k
10
votes
Accepted
Why does an AskUbuntu question mirror a UbuntuForums.org thread?
This is the fault of users duplicating things - there's no cloning between here and Ubuntu Forums.
That said, some users just blindly copy things from one site to here without attribution, which is ...
Thomas WardMod
- 72.7k
10
votes
Should we pay more attention to self-answered questions when considering flagging them as duplicates?
You did the right thing in both situations and also by posting here. Neither of these questions are duplicates.
We do need to do better at making sure that questions are not prematurely closed as ...
- 12.1k
9
votes
Accepted
How can a new user escalate an old unanswered question?
The first thing one has to understand about the Stack Exchange family of sites is that they are question and answer sites, not forums and not bug report platforms. There is simply no point whatsoever ...
- 98.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible