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I was posting an answer to this question. Something strange happened that I do not understand (involving me clicking the go back button of my browser somehow) and now the answer appears TWICE under this question.

Here and here!

I've never seen anything like this happen before, and I have posted nearly one thousand SE questions. I've asked that the two answers not be deleted until at least someone can investigate.

In the mean time, I will manually copy/paste the answer text and post it under the actual target question.

Here is an ugly zoomed-out screenshot to document the end of one copy and the beginning of the next:

enter image description here

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  • Wait, there is a clue to the problem in the answer. In my text I refer to the user RussellBorogove, who did not post an answer at my target question but DID post the question where the duplicate answers appear. I have a hunch I may have somehow managed to make this happen myself. Not at all sure there is a bug now, but I still can't understand how two identical copies of the answer appeared, even if I did somehow post in the wrong place. I'm leaving this here temporarily, but ultimately there may be no issue. Still, I've never seen anything like this before.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 6:51
  • Was it on purpose to have the answer on too different questions (and the bug being that the answer appeared twice on one of the questions)? If yes, then please don't do that. Answer one question and flag the other question of being a duplicate of the first one.
    – Tom
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:31
  • @Tom No it wasn't. It was meant to appear only once, on the question I've appropriately named as the "target question" in the body of the question above. You are confused here though, there is nothing wrong with any question. Your advice is erroneous.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:39
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    No idea on how it ended up on a different question but I've had answers accidentally post twice before; just a connection problem somewhere along the line I assume. Just delete the duplicate, not much more can be done about it really.
    – Cai
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:48
  • @Cai I'm a firm believer in reporting strange, rare, and unexpected behavior. If you are part of the SE team and can disposition this issue, great! Otherwise, please note that my question is not what can be done about it? as much as it is Might this behavior be indicative of some SE issue that needs attention? If there is a bug, or a potentially exploitable window somewhere, that might be good to know. Of course probably not, but that's not up to me to decide.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:52
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    Sure, I'm not saying it shouldn't be reported I'm just saying unless it is a recurring issue then there isn't much to be done about it. Also, you now have the same answer posted three times over two questions... you should delete the ones that aren't meant to be there (deleting them isn't going to prevent anyone capable of determining what happened from seeing them)
    – Cai
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:53
  • @Cai I would expect that that may be correct, but are you absolutely sure of this? A few more hours won't really hurt, and there are comments there, pointing to here. It's an unusual situation and you and I would choose to handle it differently. I don't plan on keeping them there, but for a short while I don't plan on touching them in any way further until it's been dispositioned. I'm an engineer, so more worried about function than transient aesthetics.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:56
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    Deleting does nothing other than hide the content from <10k users, nothing is hard-deleted
    – Cai
    Aug 11, 2017 at 10:59
  • @Cai I am sorry, but with unexpected behavior in software, the actual effect of an action is not always identical to the expected effect, nor the apparent effect. Deletion sets in motion a number of processes, many of which are completely invisible to you.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 11:07
  • OK 10 hours is enough. I've deleted both copies, links to them still exist in the question.
    – uhoh
    Aug 11, 2017 at 17:35

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