3

The text that appears (presumably automatically) when a question is closed as a duplicate is the following:

"This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question." (my emphasis)

This has the potential to confuse novice user. Sometimes, the user is not be satisfied with the answers to the previous question (i.e. he/she feels that they do not fully address the question), so naturally he/she asks a new question, only to see it promptly closed with a message telling him/her to ask a new question.

If possible, I would like to see this text split into two texts. One to be used when people asks questions that has been asked before by others, and another when a user repeats him/herself:

Text to show when closing duplicate questions because it previously has been asked by others:

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If you feel those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question, take care explaining why the new question is different.

For people that repeat themselves, the closure message should be:

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If you feel those answers do not fully address your question, please edit the old question. In the edit, make sure you expand the description so it becomes clear that the present answers do not fully address your question.

However, it is too complicated to have two different texts, they can be merged as follows:

This question has been asked before and already has an answer. If this is your question and you feel those answers do not fully address your question, please edit the old question. In the edit, make sure you expand the description so it becomes clear that the present answers do not fully address your question. If this is not your question, please ask a new question, take care explaining why the new question is different.

3

1 Answer 1

2

While I am not contrary to changing the text shown to users, I will point out a reason why the text is the one actually used.

The How to Ask page, which is linked from the page used to write a question, states the following.

Have you thoroughly searched for an answer before asking your question? Sharing your research helps everyone. Tell us what you found (on this site or elsewhere) and why it didn’t meet your needs. This demonstrates that you’ve taken the time to try to help yourself, it saves us from reiterating obvious answers, and above all, it helps you get a more specific and relevant answer!

The link takes to the page for searching on Drupal Answers.

Generally speaking, messages like those on Stack Exchange don't repeat what already said in other pages reachable from the Stack Exchange site being visited. That is the reason why that message doesn't repeat that users should first look if the question has been already asked, and to eventually make the question different from the already asked one by adding more details.

I would rather link the "How to Ask" in the message given for a closed question, but that would not mean the users will read the link, in the same why the proposed message would be understood from new users.

Just to point out to an example of another message, this is the one that most of the users read under a question asked by other users.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.

I would say that this message is equally confusing, since it is saying that if the answer I am reading is not the one I am looking for, I should browse for other questions using the same tag, or ask my own question. In other words, I could not like the answer and I ask a new question, even if that would mean repeat the same exact question, without pointing out why the other answer is not acceptable, or why my case is different from the one exposed from the other user.

I would also point out there are users who ask the same exact question twice or thrice, with the excuse that the other one is too old (even when that means 1 week old) and didn't get any answer. Clearly that shows the user doesn't understand how Stack Exchange sites work.
At some point, we need to assume that users understand how a Stack Exchange works, or we are going to provide every possible link that is relevant for the user who asked a question that is then closed.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .