A user asked this question (casperOne seems to have closed it already), which was a problem that the user did not know how to accomplish, to which I answered and was able to help said user.
An hour and a half later, the same user asks a very similar question with a problem very similar to the first question, to which I also answered with a solution that is similar (but different) to the first answer.
Another user noticed the similarity, and commented on the 2nd question. I don't think it's a coincidence that seconds before (at 18:21:15 and 18:21:21) the comment was posted (at 18:21:24), both of my (correct) answers were downvoted.
I'm also not surprised that this was brought up in chat around the same time.
So, what gives?
People ask and answer exact duplicate questions all the time, whether they were asked an hour apart or a year apart. Granted these two questions may be similar, but their answers aren't identical, especially if you don't know about XPath or how it is used. Both of my posts answered the original questions, helped the OP, and included links to documentation and demonstrations for any future users to learn from.
The obvious answer is that someone thinks I'm rep-whoring. After being active on the site for almost a year and just now exceeding the 10k mark, is that really plausible? Or that I would be in some team to answer questions posed by someone I know?
I really don't think anything warrants downvoting my first answer, especially since the OP accepted it.
So I'm curious: What was / is the proper etiquette in this situation?
- Should I have ignored the second question, voting to close it as a duplicate of the first question (knowing that they're not duplicates, but similar)?
- Side note: The 2nd question was closed as a duplicate of an even more off-topic question, as the solution to the original question is not in any of the answers.
- Should I delete my answer on the second question?
- Should the second question be flagged for removal?