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Is not liking the answer given for an existing question a reason enough to ask a duplicate/similar question? Ironically, kiamlaluno did not receive an answer on asking this.

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    Hmm, I see what you mean, but I think not. A duplicate that had bad answers to begin is still a duplicate. My suggestion is to close as a dupe but post a better answer on the original, or find the best dupes and merge.
    – anongoodnurse
    Dec 16, 2015 at 9:36
  • You want to ask a duplicate question, is that it? Or do you want to offer a bounty on an old question? I'd do the second if I were you, or ask kiamlaaluna directly to make this sacrifice, if you're unwilling. But that would mean you don't get to decide whose answer is best. Why don't you post the question link here? Is it such a sensitive topic/issue?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Dec 16, 2015 at 10:32
  • 'What is the etymology of the term “Cockpit”?' was answered sketchily in the previous 'Metaphorical use of “the cockpit” ' thread (admittedly closed, though the correct 'lack of research' reason clouds the issue here). OP for 'What is the etymology of the term “Cockpit”?' responded to my close-as-duplicate vote with 'I don't think saying it is "metaphorical of cockfighting arenas" is necessarily a good answer.' Has he a valid argument according to site policy?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 16, 2015 at 11:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Not liking the answer is an insufficient reason to justify a duplicate question. The question should be closed as a duplicate of the original question and the original should be improved if necessary. Editing a question will attract more attention to it. If the question has an accepted answer, posting a bounty is a more effective means of attracting new answers. That is the desired course of action.

In rare cases, the duplicate question might be considered more useful or helpful than the original question. In that case, a Meta question posed to the community about closing an older question as a duplicate of a newer, clearer question might help to determine the correct action. However, generally speaking, we would prefer to see old, canonical answers improved rather than new posts.

So if you don't like the answers given:
1. Edit the original question to make it better
2. Post a bounty on the original question

Otherwise, your duplicate question will probably be closed as a duplicate and someday in the distant future, it will be merged with the original question.

That said, it is not helpful to anyone to close a question as a duplicate of a closed question -- if they are duplicates, then it should be closed for the same reason. If the close reason doesn't apply, then it's probably not actually a duplicate. Also, it is not helpful to close questions as duplicates of posts with negative score, since this are auto-deleted at some point in the distant future, which will break the duplicate link.

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    I'm more concerned about what action to take when people complain about a duplicate close-vote, in some cases reasonably evaluating answers given at the original as unsatisfactory.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 15, 2015 at 23:48
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    @Edwin One of the purposes of offering bounties is to attract better answers. That should still be the first thing to try.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Dec 15, 2015 at 23:52
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    So when someone posts what I consider to be a duplicate I offer a bounty on the original? It's the policing protocol I'm asking about.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 15, 2015 at 23:56
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    @Edwin OK, I'm not sure what you mean by "policing protocol". I think it would help if you edited your question to include a specific example, so I can wrap my head around what you are getting at.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Dec 16, 2015 at 2:24
  • 'What is the etymology of the term “Cockpit”?' was answered sketchily in the previous 'Metaphorical use of “the cockpit” ' thread (admittedly closed, though the correct 'lack of research' reason clouds the issue here). OP for 'What is the etymology of the term “Cockpit”?' responded to my close-as-duplicate vote with 'I don't think saying it is "metaphorical of cockfighting arenas" is necessarily a good answer.' Has he a valid argument according to site policy?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 16, 2015 at 11:17
  • KitZ.Fox - With regards to "Policing protocol", I assume @EdwinAshworth means "I found a question which was a duplicate, but the OP of this new question complained that he didn't like the original question's answers. Should I dupe-hammer this new question or not?"
    – AndyT
    Dec 16, 2015 at 13:21
  • Further, should I flag for the complaint? / I'm getting tired of the politics hereabouts; I'm reasonably happy with my understanding of the language.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Dec 16, 2015 at 14:13
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    @Edwin I don't see any complaints that are flag-worthy on that question. The only comment I see is a justification of why the OP believes the question is not a dupe, which is fine.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Dec 16, 2015 at 14:27
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    It needs to be emphasized more that one should never mark a new question as a duplicate of a closed question. (Well, unless the old question is closed-as-dupe itself, but in that case, it's better to follow the chain all the way to the end. And if that question doesn't look like a duplicate of the new question, then there was probably an incorrect closure somewhere along the way.) If the questions are really duplicates, then the close reason from the old question should apply to the new question as well; if it doesn't, then either they're not dupes, or the old question shouldn't be closed.
    – Marthaª
    Dec 16, 2015 at 17:27
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    @KitZ.Fox The problem is when there are lots of bad answers and one of them has been selected by the Original OP. This one then gets read the most, and any new ones right at the bottom of the page often get ignored. What is really bad is when you upvote an answer and then ten minutes later when you get to an accurate answer at the bottom of the page, you realise the one you upvoted is positively harmful, but your upvote is locked in.
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Dec 17, 2015 at 13:20
  • In certain cases, would it not be a good idea to deliberately open a duplicate in order to facilitate the closing of the original, to enable a better answer to be selected on the new page? Especially if the OP of the OQ has not visited stack for several months or years and can't be appealed to to change their selected answer?
    – Araucaria - Not here any more.
    Dec 17, 2015 at 13:22
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    I don't see why questions shouldn't be closed as duplicates of closed questions. Especially on other sites where changes to the site scope means that old popular questions with good answers get closed as off-topic. They'll never be deleted and will provide answers to any duplicates. Much more useful to have the duplicate link than to just close them as off-topic.
    – curiousdannii
    Dec 17, 2015 at 16:41
  • I don't think it's a duplicate: the first about metaphorical “The cockpit of this fought was the Senate of the US”, whereas the second asks about its evolution from cockfighting to aircraft.
    – Hugo
    Dec 18, 2015 at 23:40
  • One of the answers for the first question happens to partially answer the second question, but also answers something entirely different. The other two answers for the first question don't apply to the second question because they're different questions.
    – Hugo
    Dec 18, 2015 at 23:45

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