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,...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Mark Kirby's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
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&...
jrg's user avatar
  • 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 ...
kos's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Oli's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Seth's user avatar
  • 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 ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 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 ...
muru's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 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 ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Jacob Vlijm's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Takkat's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Luis Alvarado's user avatar
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 ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 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. ...
Oli's user avatar
  • 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 ...
chili555's user avatar
  • 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), ...
Eliah Kagan's user avatar
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:
dessert's user avatar
  • 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
karel's user avatar
  • 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.
Anwar's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Zanna's user avatar
  • 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.
Zanna's user avatar
  • 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 ...
muru's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Byte Commander's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Fabby's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Zanna's user avatar
  • 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 Ward's user avatar
  • 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 ...
Nmath's user avatar
  • 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 ...
terdon's user avatar
  • 98.3k

Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible