Recently we had a Pokémon Go question asking for how a specific feature works as of a specific patch. We also have an old question which asks about how the feature works. I believe the answers on the old question were outdated when the new question was posted, however they have been since updated. So we now have two questions asking the same thing with the same answers and I don't 100% know how we decided to deal with these. Should we dupe the old to the new, the new to the old, or leave them be?
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5Based off the help center, you were right to update your old answer: "...Editing is important for keeping questions and answers clear, relevant, and up-to-date...". Further, our 'Chronological Oppression' dupe rule is meant for questions where the newer one is clearly better. I think both questions here are equally 'good', so I don't think that rule applies. Personally I'm inclined to dupe the newer back to the older, but I'd like to see what the community thinks first.– Robotnik ModCommented Sep 2, 2017 at 8:07
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1@Robotnik I always try to keep my answers up to date. If I learn that they aren't I'll go research to find the new info if I can. I was thinking more along the lines of the more recent dupelication project meta that either Strix or Wipqozn posted. The old answers technically didn't answer the new questions problem when it was posted, but they do now. Though if people are posting dupes for an updated answer I would prefer they poke the old question with a comment or two to see if anyone could update their answer first.– Dragonrage ModCommented Sep 2, 2017 at 8:13
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@Robotnik considering that dupes can appear to some as a punishment, I'd dupe the new to the old if only to make clear the point that old questions should be updated with new material via edits and not re-postings. A simple edit asking for better info, for instance, would be enough to bring it to the front page in the off-chance the interested party doesn't know the updated answer. Duping the old to the new would make it seem like the old asker is being punished for not updating their question.– user64742Commented Sep 3, 2017 at 19:19
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1@Typhon Duping is not punishment. If you see it as such, that's on the user, not us. We're trying to help them by duping, and help ourselves at the same time.– FrankCommented Sep 3, 2017 at 20:37
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@Frank It counts towards a question posting ban and can attract downvotes and/or more closures. It shows that the post did not use proper research to show that it was already posted on this site.– user64742Commented Sep 3, 2017 at 20:43
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1@Typhom No, duping does nothing to the question ban. Downvotes do. And if the user shows no effort, it should be downvoted.– FrankCommented Sep 3, 2017 at 21:27
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1@Frank - A duplication can actually lead to a question ban, at the end of the day it's still a closure, But if a dupe question is the 'last straw' in triggering a question ban then the user should review all their previous contributions, not just the duplicate one, as the problem is more systemic then a single dupe.– Robotnik ModCommented Sep 13, 2017 at 2:13
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1 Answer
Honestly, this should never have been reopened. The duping process did exactly what it was supposed to. Answers got updated, helping the asker of the new question, and all was good.
This insistence on not duping questions because we don't have an up to date answer just causes more work for everybody. Reopening questions on that basis, even after answers have been updated, does us all a disservice. If asking a question causes us to update existing answers, the duplicate process is working as intended. Don't reopen a question if the original gets updated answers; now we just have two questions asking the same thing.
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"This insistence on not duping questions because we don't have an up to date answer just causes more work for everybody." It takes more work to add updated answers to the old post instead of making a new question? Commented Sep 3, 2017 at 20:45
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By making the new question a dupe and updating the originals answers or answering the old question with a new answer, might lead to a situation where there is only one question about the matter (good) but the most upvoted answers and the accepted one might be currently wrong. Commented Sep 4, 2017 at 6:45
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2@Communisty Accepted answers are irrelevant. What matters are the upvoted answers. If an answer isn't correct anymore, downvote it! That's the whole point of downvoting! Kinda hard to complain about incorrect answers when no one actually uses the system as intended.– FrankCommented Sep 4, 2017 at 12:51
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@Frank, you are correct. Added trouble comes as this games popularity has decreased from the times of the original question, so the system of voters isn't so elastic anymore. Commented Sep 4, 2017 at 12:57