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I was browsing data.SE and noticed that the questions listed below are closed as duplicates of deleted questions. We could reopen them, delete them, or perhaps undelete their duplicate targets.

Possibly some of the questions ought to be closed again after reopening with some other close reason.

This question is both a duplicate of a deleted question and locked because it was merged with the deleted question:

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    or, we could just delete them. If their dup targets are closed and deleted, then these questions would probably be closed and deleted if they were posted now.
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jul 15, 2016 at 5:03
  • Thanks @Dragonrage. I forgot about that option somehow.
    – Lord Harkon
    Jul 15, 2016 at 5:16
  • I am unfamiliar with how Data.SE works. Was that a link made available to you, or did you make the SQL yourself?
    – user106385
    Jul 15, 2016 at 6:11
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    @Timelord64 I wrote the query.
    – Lord Harkon
    Jul 15, 2016 at 6:13
  • Good job. Its things like this that help us clean up the place a bit better
    – user106385
    Jul 15, 2016 at 6:27
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    What confuses me most is that the "originals" all appear to be closed as "unclear what your asking". How can we say 'this asks the same question'if we also say 'We don't understand what the original question is'?
    – user106385
    Jul 15, 2016 at 6:30
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    It is worth noting that two of your questions are not "dead links". One has a dead link, but another link that is still active. Another is not dead at all, I am not sure how that would have slipped through. I have found two Diablo 3 posts that I do not agree with (too localised, which is no longer valid), in regards to the deletion. Unfortunately, a mod seems to have done so against meta opinion, so I have opened a new meta requesting the questions be undeleted.
    – user106385
    Jul 15, 2016 at 7:33
  • @Timelord64 Ah, I didn’t notice that. Both of those questions are from the days when the “possible duplicate” text was edited into the question itself, and someone edited those questions to change the duplicate target. That change isn’t reflected in the database, so I missed it.
    – Lord Harkon
    Jul 15, 2016 at 13:46

1 Answer 1

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TL;DR: Don't worry about them. Now you have brought them to our attention, they will likely be deleted like the originals.

There are only two reasons I have ever found for reopening old questions:

  • The close reason is valid, but I can see a valid way to edit the question to be considered valid1.
  • The close reason was valid, but since has been re-evaluated, and is no longer a valid close reason.

Given they are duplicates, we know they are asking the same thing. Given the original was deleted, we know that the original was considered off-topic. There is no real use in reopening questions that we already know will be closed.

In regards to the "clean up" issue, the better solution is to simply delete them.

I will personally be addressing each of the questions you link, and assuming they are not the cases listed above, cast my delete vote.

1 If it is an old question, I would usually only consider fixing it if it was met with particularly high votes. We do, however, have methods for fixing "off topic" questions while retaining intent. If a question asks for a mod recommendation, for example, we can edit the question to ask how to solve the initial problem, with the expectation that a good answer will suggest a mod, if there is no other solution.

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