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I often see comments like:

possible duplicate of XXXX May 27 '13 at 0:35
@abc Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

The question is then left with 1 close vote.

When I review the question in the close queue, as the question has no answers etc and the “owner” has confirmed the “possible duplicate” is correct, I just vote to close as a duplicate without even checking if it is.

There must be a way to prompt the question owner to confirm the duplicate is correct and at least capture 1 close vote from the owner – maybe that vote should be binding, so that no one else need to close vote the given question.

Maybe there should me a message displayed only to the question owner at top of the question like.

This question may already have an answer here:
Grant the OP a binding close as duplicate vote in the new UI 3 answers
Does this fully answer your question? [Yes] / [No]

Perhaps, suggesting that the user can improve their question by providing additional details if they chose [No]. Maybe the question owner could also be given +2 rep in the same way as when they accept an answer.

I don't consider Grant the OP a binding close as duplicate vote in the new UI to be a duplicate as I am asking a wider question,however some of its answers add to the discussion on this question.

Improve this question
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  • 3
    Independant 3k user + OP seems like more than enough to confirm a duplicate
    – Richard Tingle
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 13:22
  • 4
    Based on this rough query we might close almost 3000 questions
    – rene Mod
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 13:34
  • I'd simply flag the question for mod attention. "Please take a look, per discussion in comments, OP openly admit that their question is a duplicate of another one (<URL of the dupe>): 'Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for'". Note it's important to provide both the dupe URL and OP quote in flag message, to save a mod actioning the flag from extra thinking
    – gnat
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 13:36
  • 1
    Might as well ask how to get users to learn how to use the site. For myself I've voted to close several of my questions as a duplicate when my original search fu failed me.
    – ale
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 13:41
  • 2
    @AlE. Prompt them when they come back to the question, with a message they can dismess by "thanks xxx has answered my problem" or "xxx has not answered my problem".
    – Ian Ringrose
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 13:44
  • when there are no answers the OP can do us a huge favor and just delete his question altogether.
    – user221081
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 14:07
  • 1
    Though it's flattering you felt the need to say that it's not a duplicate and copy and paste the suggestion made it would be polite if you were to attribute slightly. I agree that you're asking a wider question, however, if you strip out the paragraphs that make this a duplicate you're left with "There must be a way to prompt the question owner to confirm the duplicate is correct and at least capture 1 close vote from the owner", which is almost completely covered by the suggestion...
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 14:14
  • 1
    @mehow, You are assumging the the question will not show up in searchers and help others find the duplicate with the answer.
    – Ian Ringrose
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 14:39
  • 2
    Most people don't know about that privilege of being able to cast close votes on their own. Some people are even surprised when they do see it show up. Maybe a badge is warranted for casting a close vote on your own question?
    – user213963
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 15:00
  • @IanRingrose so 20 duplicates should flood the first page on google search? it would work like a chain if the duplicates were not properly redirecting (which you can't fully monitor). You click one -> to click another one -> to click one more to finally arrive at where you wanted after wasting 20 clicks + X amount of time and bandwidth traffic. How annoying would that be.. I'd rather have 1 result for each different source than 20 in the end leading to the same thing...
    – user221081
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 15:02
  • All I am saying is that an OP would do everyone a favour by deleting his question if he finds it's a duplicate. All the non-valuable duplicates and closed questions are at some point removed from Stack Exchange.
    – user221081
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 15:04
  • Given the way that the sitemap file works, Google will give more weight to questions that are not closed and that have up voted answers. Often a duplicate will describe the same problem with different words. If the wording of the questions are so close to each other that the 2nd questions will never be found without the 1st questions showing up, then we do want the 2nd question deleted as quickly as possible.
    – Ian Ringrose
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 15:09
  • @IanRingrose there's also the "related questions" that show up in the title match which are based off of title similarity. If the original doesn't come up there, having such a duplicate can help to avoid having the question asked in the first place (assuming the OP at least looks at that text box).
    – user213963
    Commented Feb 5, 2014 at 16:52

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