Merge content on duplicated questions?

Question

When having duplicated questions, I agree that the newest one should be closed. However, as the topic emerges again, it brings up the question for debate and new and interesting information sometimes is added. It is then a pity that as the newest post is closed, the discussion cannot continue and usually the old post continues where it is, at the bottom of the drawer.

One solution could be: move the answers from the duplicated question to the old one that was there first and bump it at the same time. I know that this solution can have pros and cons, and also maybe it is difficult to implement. Hence I wanted to bring this up for discussion and see if there is something that could be done (i.e., not being necessarily what I proposed).

Answer 1

This is a great idea and I've already thought about that. Unfortunately the duplicated question is usually found late which results in answers being present in both of the questions. This is definitely problematic as the knowledge is spread between the two questions and it will be quite difficult to track answers in all of the duplicated questions.

It's on the top of my priority list to identify how problematic it's to implement this.

Thanks for starting this suggestion!

Comments

I'm glad to hear you liked the proposal. Indeed, it is problematic, and it is especially a pity that the momentum on the new question cannot be passed onto the already existing question. It would be fantastic if a solution could be found, although I can imagine it can be challenging technically speaking.