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I found a question which I wanted to ask on Stack Overflow, the questioner has commented the answer on question itself.

Now I need a clarification on their comments, but as I don't have enough reputation to comment I can't comment there. So instead, I posted my comments in the answer field. Within a minute my post got deleted as it was obviously not an answer.

But everybody suggested to me that I ask a new question with a link to the existing question. Is this the correct way? Won't that create duplicate question?

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Yes, asking a new question based on an existing question is the correct way to proceed and do link to it from your question.

Won't that create duplicate question?

No, it won't because your question IS different than the question you refer to otherwise your problem would be solved.

The key is the difference between your situation and that of the OP of the original question and the answer that (presumeably) solves that original issue.

If you take care in precisely explaining what is different and show the results of the original answer in your context you make sure your question is not a duplicate.

Keep in mind though that only linking to the original question and stating that doesn't work is NOT a valid way to get a clarification.

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Won't that create duplicate question?

If you are asking another question, based on this, it is not duplicate. So ask it. With a link to a question, caused your question. A question is marked as duplicate only if original question already solves this problem. It won't be a duplicate if, for example, original question asked how to achieve something, and you asked why can it be used to achieve this something, how it works.

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  • But what if i want to ask for clarification on particular answer in existing question. As low reputation doesn't allow me to comment on that post how can i ask for clarification to that person only. Why should i create a new question for asking clarification to a single person?
    – DineshM
    May 29, 2014 at 4:18
  • @DineshM yes, it is a waiting game - ask new or wait til 50? Hoping my reputation will not decrease by asking, or waiting for reputation to increase? Is this worth the anguish?
    – Bryan-StackExchange
    Mar 4, 2023 at 7:57

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