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I've seen several times before that I got many upvotes on questions that are marked as duplicates, even after the mark.

Does it make any sense? I mean, is it constructive? Why should we upvote duplicates if there have been a better explanation of the same problem before? Why don't you upvote it instead?

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    I upvote duplicates where the wording is clearly different so (1) the user probably did search first but searched differently (2) the internet is not better as there are more doors to the main question Oct 3, 2013 at 10:51
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  • I think meta users should receive bonus points for asking self-relating questions. +1 for actually being a duplicate
    – jozxyqk
    Oct 22, 2013 at 15:12

2 Answers 2

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Often finding a duplicate is difficult, it may be the same but worded entirely differently. In that case a duplicate can still be a good thing as it increases the ways a person could search for something and find the answer, as such the internet is better and an upvote may be warranted.

Additionally, given that we accept that finding the duplicate may have been difficult; a question that is otherwise excellent should still be rewarded to encourage similar behaviour in the future.

See Dr. Strangedupe: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Love Duplication for some more details on how some duplication is good

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  • True; even sometimes when I look for a problem, I try to search, no founds, then I ask it and then users show that it was asked before. Oct 3, 2013 at 10:55
  • @ZoltánSchmidt And that may be because they personally had seen the duplicate before rather than them just searching for it Oct 3, 2013 at 10:56
  • Though, I think at least one person always tries to find out whether is it a duplicate or not. I mean, I can't believe that anyone could have memorized the 6 million (or more) question of SO :) Oct 3, 2013 at 10:58
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    Speak for yourself ;) Oct 3, 2013 at 11:00
  • Okay then, I can trust you! Either way, the bigger the site is, the more users are there to remember already asked questions. Oct 3, 2013 at 11:02
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I upvote duplicate questions if I find the OP has put enough time to ask the question. E.g. Asked clearly, what he has tried, what's not working, added relevant images (if require) etc. May be it's lack of research efforts but it happen many times with me that even after searching a lot I ask duplicate questions.

However if I find the duplicate question in the Related section situated at the right side, I usually don't upvote since he could find the question while asking.

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