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The title says it all. I had a question that was what I wanted, then I thought of a potential way of doing it, but I thought that it was tangential to the question so I opened a new question. That 2nd question showed to be fruitless, I marked it as answered and am trying to get those who want to continue helping me to go to the original question as it has more detail as to what I was trying to accomplish. But they are not moving.

So I'd like to close that tangent question off. Is there a way to do it giving a reason that it has been answered?

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2 Answers 2

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get those who want to continue helping me to go to the original question

Post a link to your original question as a courtesy to those that might be able to help with it. If your expectation is that those helping you with the second facet of the problem are able and willing to help you with the first, this may not necessarily be true.

Remember, everyone helping you is a volunteer, so there's no expectation for someone to continue on afterwards.

So, no, closing your subsequent question is not the proper approach to divert attention back to your first one, unfortunately.

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  • Thanks. Did that already. The thing is that they are trying to delve deeper into why I wanted to do what I asked, and I don't want to repeat myself as well as taking the thread OT.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:12
  • So, if you then edit your first question to address their issues, you will both clarify what they are asking and bring more attention to your question by virtue of bumping it to the front page. I think that's a win-win for everyone.
    – jonsca
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:13
  • Ok, I'll try that. Thanks.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:15
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Well first of all you should not open two questions about the same subject. You could have simply edited the content of the first question to add the informations.

Now if you want to draw the attention to the first question, put a bounty on it. You'll probably get the attention you're looking for.

If it doesn't work, flag the second question and ask for moderator attention, then explain your case and hope they're willing to help you. Again, don't open duplicates. You can delete you second question if there is no upvoted answers on it.

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  • It wasn't a duplicate, it was tangential enough that I thought that it merited its own question.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:03
  • What is with the "You can accept this answer in x (minutes/hours/days)". I had this before and it's quite annoying.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:04
  • @Adrian Well i'd love to know why / how you want people from a question to go on your other question that is different enough to have a different post and still make sense.
    – ʞunɥdɐpɐɥd
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:05
  • @Adrian Well you have to wait a short delay (10 minutes I think) before accepting an answer.
    – ʞunɥdɐpɐɥd
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:05
  • One is a question on if/how I could do something. The other was a more specific question but could be used for other purposes outside of my first question.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:08
  • I see well there you have your solution. Also if you could post a link to those questions i'd love to see them.
    – ʞunɥdɐpɐɥd
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:09
  • The solution to the 2nd question was that it couldn't be done. It was highly specific.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:09
  • 1st Question: stackoverflow.com/questions/16483536/… 2nd Question: stackoverflow.com/questions/16487260/…
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:14
  • I'm not exactly sure what you're expecting a moderator to do here... provide advice on how to get an answer?
    – djechlin
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 20:58
  • @djechlin like the title says : close the question
    – ʞunɥdɐpɐɥd
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:17
  • @returnPhaDaPhunk then shouldn't you flag it is "doesn't belong" and pick a close reason?
    – djechlin
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:22
  • @Adrian the reason you have to wait before accepting an answer is that it is not necessarily guaranteed that the first answer will be the best answer. So the site tries to delay your decision a little bit and allow at least a short amount of time for additional answers to appear. Personally I think the delay is not long enough, but that's another story.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:39
  • @returnPhaDaPhunk, no, it does belong. But looks like people are not bothering anymore so that's ok. Never mind.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:55
  • @AaronBertrand, I had a 2 day wait for one for some reason. Dunno why.
    – Adrian
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:56
  • @Adrian to accept or to award a bounty?
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented May 10, 2013 at 21:57

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