I found the answer to my question but only by chance, because of the wording of the answered question was completely different. What should I do?

Question

It wasn't that the answered question's wording was poor as such, just that it attacked the same problem from a very different angle, and so it contained none of the keywords I would have used when searching for the answer to my problem.

Should I:

1. Edit the original question to include my version of the question as well (so that the original answer isn't lost? (so "How do I X" becomes "How do I X OR How do I Y")
2. Ask my version of the question, then self-answer with a link to that question
3. Some other course of action?
4. Do nothing

Answer 1

Your course of action may depend on the question but providing a link only answer should never be done.

I think you should ask your question with your own title and words, then flag for a moderator to:

1. make it a duplicate of the other question (if you cannot vote for that yourself), and
2. perform a merge of your question with it.

Answer 2

Post your own question.

• You should first of all post a new question with the proper wording. However, you should add a note that describes the purpose of your post, to avoid negative feedback, such as close votes and potentially even down-votes.

• If you think that there is room for improvements to the existing answers, you should provide another answer to your own question, and of course credit the initial post with a link. However, don't do it if the existing solutions are of good quality.

• If you have the necessary reputation, cast a vote to close your question as a duplicate. If you don't, raise a moderator flag and after making it a duplicate, merge it with the other question.