9

On questions that are marked as a duplicate of another question I think it would make it a little clearer if the link to the original question was in the "closed as exact duplicate" box as well.

This is just because I'm newish to the site and thought the "possible duplicate" quote was a question the poster was asking about his own question, and I was more interested in looking at the question it was marked a duplicate of first.

This would also fix the issue mentioned here I found before posting this: Closing as exact duplicate: Missing links to the duplicate questions

Edit: Thanks to Cody I have a better understanding of how this works. My confusion stemmed from the fact by placing the proposal of duplication in the question body that this was not part of the standard process for marking a question as a duplicate, then later thinking that the two messages appear at once when marked as duplicate by a moderator. I can understand the idea of placing it in the question body because people are more likely to see it when reading the question then some surrounding location. So an alternative change that would prevent confusion for me at least, is change the top message to "Marked as possible duplicate by Dave" and the bottom message to say "Confirmed as duplicate by Peter" then at least it's a lot more clear the two messages are linked, and that the link at the top is the official question it was marked a duplicate of. It also makes it more clear how the process works which is helpful to newish users like me.

Improve this question
8
  • I don't understand what this is asking. We already provide a link to the duplicate question. It's not that hard to figure out...
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 9:06
  • 3
    Well currently the link is added to the start of the question with words "Possible Duplicate" above it as if it was a question added by the original author. And the official response is below which is clear because it's not part of the question and uses affirmative language like "closed as exact duplicate", but of course with no link. And for me it was hard to figure out until I saw another duplicate question, and I don't think I'm the only one. All I'm asking asking is it be changed to "closed as exact duplicate of question 99503 by Michael" with "question 99503" a link to that question.
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 10:38
  • 1
    Speaking of duplicates this is a duplicate of a request on meta superuser which I didn't find at first being a different stackexchange site. meta.superuser.com/questions/2057/….
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 10:41
  • 1
    Hmm. I was definitely going to say that you were the only one. It's at the very top of the question, basically impossible to miss.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 10:44
  • How do you mean miss? I saw it but did not think it was added by the same person closing the question as a duplicate. I mean do you think "Possible Duplicate" and "Closed as exact duplicate" is from the same person?
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 10:55
  • Yes. It's possible that it's a duplicate question, and it was closed by 5 people who thought it was an exact duplicate. Don't really see the problem. We put the possible duplicate link at the top so that people will see it.
    – Cody Gray
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 10:58
  • 1
    Interesting i did not know that. So to start with someone proposes it as a duplicate with a message appearing at the top then later is closed with enough votes with a message appearing at the bottom? At the end of the day I'm suggesting this change for new users like me to make it more clear. More experienced users who know all the ins and outs of the site wouldn't be confused.
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 11:05
  • Oh well, if my request isn't going to be considered, I suggest posting your last comment as a reworded answer and I'll mark it as the answer to my question. It makes a whole lot more sense to me now, so thanks.
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 11:18

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

The link to the duplicated question at the beginning allows to easily find it.
Image a question with a long text; you should scroll to reach the end of the question to find the link to the original question. Having the link at the beginning allows you to immediately notice it, and look at the question being duplicated, where you will probably find more answers.

Improve this answer
4
  • Fair enough, I wasn't meaning to propose the removal of the "possible duplicate", just that since there is a "closed as exact duplicate" box already it makes sense to place a link there too.
    – Michael
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 1:05
  • That doesn't exclude showing it at both locations.
    – Steven Jeuris
    Commented Mar 11, 2012 at 14:51
  • Allow to easily find it only if you are familiar with the site. I spent 15 minutes searching for it and I'm not an idiot. It's not clear that you have to look for a link to an exact duplicate in a box labeled "possible duplicate" elsewhere, and it's not clear the items in that box are links at all, as they are not highlighted text in a sentence and there are no icons pointing out. The links are blueish like other links but there are other blue things on the page that are not links.
    – Stein
    Commented Nov 9, 2012 at 11:01
  • @Stein The "Possible Duplicate:" text is well visible on the top of questions closed as duplicate. You could think what follows is just the title of the question; if you hover it, you should notice it is a link.
    – avpaderno
    Commented Nov 9, 2012 at 11:15
-1

Nope. Putting it in the "closed" box, people are likely to miss it. It's possible for them to miss which was the question being duplicated.

Just leave it at the top. It's easy to spot, and new users will get used to it quickly.

Improve this answer
1
  • That doesn't exclude showing it at both locations.
    – Steven Jeuris
    Commented Mar 11, 2012 at 14:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .