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Yesterday i was trying to answer 2 questions on SO, but when i finished typing the questions was closed because they were duplicate.

One of the question was answered by a really not that good of an answer (so the question is closed, but that answer is the only one to show), and the second question had no answer at all.

Now if someone will see the first question and its answer, he will be giving the sense that this answer is ok to work with it, and no one can give other answers, or they won't bother as that question is closed, so those users will be using the wrong way.

The second answer is actually more important, because the question had actually couple of right answers, and couple of right ways to do what the OP wanted, but the duplicate that was linked to it was a specific one way (the OP asked for a specific way to do it, so i can't answer with the other way to do it as it won't be answering the question), but again, because the question is closed, no one will bother answering it or take a look if its really a duplicate?

I don't have enough points to comment or chat, so i can't do anything about it, but SO is about helping people to understand code, the first question was a typo of the OP and needed exactly 2 lines to answer it (first line the code, and second is where his problem was), the second question had few answers but yet the duplicate only specifically talking about one of those answers.

So i kinda have 2 questions, do we really need to close questions without giving any answer? If a questions have couple of ways to do it, does it really a duplicate of a question that is only specifically talking about 1 way to do it?

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    if the questions were closed as duplicates that's because the solution for the question is in the duplicate question. if a question got an answer before it was closed and it's has problems in it when leave a comment and when you get the rep for it downvote (if it isn't corrected)
    – Memor-X
    Nov 28, 2016 at 5:55
  • Yes i will do that, but the duplicate is asking how to achieve something, and the question that is given is asking to do that same thing but with a specific method, does it really count as a duplicate? Nov 28, 2016 at 6:01
  • @PolyGeo - the original question ask "how do i pass data in the url", and the other question asks "how to pass data between 2 pages", no doubt passing with url is one way to do it, but i can think about 2 other ways to do the same thing, but those ways doesn't fit the original question. Nov 28, 2016 at 6:13

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So i kinda have 2 questions, do we really need to close questions without giving any answer?

If questions are off-topic or not possible to answer in their current state, then they should be closed, irrespective of whether they have an answer.

If a questions have couple of ways to do it, does it really a duplicate of a question that is only specifically talking about 1 way to do it?

If there are two or more valid answers to a question that currently has only one of them, and the same question is asked again, then it should be made a duplicate of the earlier one.

If you ever think a question should not be a duplicate of another that it has been made a duplicate of then start that question by showing that you are aware of the earlier potential duplicate and explain why you think it is not a duplicate. Remember that, just saying it is not a duplicate is not enough, you need to show that it is not a duplicate.

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