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"Describes me to the 'T'" - why not the to the "E" or some other letter? is an exact dupe, 2 other people have flagged this and one has put a link in the comments.

I can see a reason for multiple votes before closing something as off-topic, not-a-question, etc - they are opinions. But if one high rep (>10k) user marks it as exact dupe isn't it reasonable to at least put the dupe link above the title - as it is after it is closed?

EL&U is a relatively low volume site compared to SO and it may take a while before another 4 users notice it's a dupe, go to the trouble of tracking down the dupe question and vote to close.

Is there an argument for scaling the number of votes in proportion to the size of the site?

edit: apparently the first close vote adds the dupe as a link in the comments, I thought that the voter had taken the trouble to do this manually. The 'recent votes' tools for 10k users also make it easier for users to help moderate the site. Thanks

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    The question link in comments is automatically added when you vote as a dupe
    – simchona
    Dec 15, 2011 at 17:47
  • @simchona - good. The close votes don't show who the other voters were, so I didn't know if you had done that manually.It's still less visible than the big 'dupe' banner once it has been closed
    – mgb
    Dec 15, 2011 at 17:56
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    Not all "close as duplicate" votes are as clear cut as this one.
    – Chris Burt-Brown
    Dec 16, 2011 at 9:46
  • 10K+ users "Tools" show recent close votes, so it often happens that as soon as one person votes to close, others quickly notice, check, and endorse a good decision regarding dups. I think this part of the system works fine - the issue is figuring out the collective logic we apply when making these decisions, and how to word a summary of that logic in the FAQ.
    – FumbleFingers
    Dec 19, 2011 at 14:59
  • Duplicates can be just as much a judgement call as any other reason for closing: what if you missed some nuance in the focus of the question, one that's Very Important to the asker? I've recently been hit with this on a different SE site -- my question was closed as a duplicate, except the supposed-duplicate question doesn't ask the same thing, and none of the answers to it come even close to answering my question.
    – JPmiaou
    Dec 30, 2011 at 16:22

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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  • it's easier to have all close reasons act the same. A special exception for duplicates would be extra design (choosing exactly which alternative) and development.

  • with all decisions here there is always the understanding that one could be wrong. Are judgements of duplication more or less definitive (so fewer people are needed for confirmation)? I really don't know. Let's keep it like the other close reasons.

If you really think it should be closed, for whatever reason, one can always flag for moderator action.

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    I think dupes are more definitive than what's on or off topic or real question - otherwise there wouldn't be any discussion on meta! But since it does put a link in the comment to the dupe after the first vote that does most of what I wanted
    – mgb
    Dec 15, 2011 at 22:52
  • I see what you're saying; these other things allow dealing with duplicates differently than the other close choices, and that accounts enough for the differences (yes I agree 'duplicate' can feel more definitive because you can point to a previous answer (you still have to judge it though))
    – Mitch
    Dec 16, 2011 at 0:03
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The decision of whether a question is a duplicate or not is no more clear-cut than any other close reason. I've seen multiple examples of questions marked as duplicates of existing questions that are, at best, tangentially related.

So, basically "what Mitch said", only with less hemming and hawing. :)

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But if one high rep (>10k) user marks it as exact dupe isn't it reasonable to at least put the dupe link above the title - as it is after it is closed?

No, it isn't. When a 10k user votes to close, his vote is the same as any other user who can vote to close questions. The only users for which the vote to close is different, as it is any of their votes, are the moderators, for which the votes cause the post to be closed/deleted.

Closing as duplicate is not different from closing as off-topic, and it doesn't take the precedence over closing for other reasons. Off-topic questions are probably more "dangerous," but closing questions for the other reasons is equally important.

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... it may take a while before another 4 users notice it's a dupe, go to the trouble of tracking down the dupe question and vote to close.

After the first close vote, subsequent potential voters can see it has one close vote; they can see what kind of close vote it is; and they can see which the proposed duplicate questions are. It's one further click to open it and evaluate duplication.

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  • @TimLymington: Thanks, that's what I was after :)
    – Hugo
    Dec 16, 2011 at 15:52

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