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    I agree that we should do duplicates better, but I think I diverge modestly on what better is. Most of the duplicates I've encountered are not "What is this IP format" linking to a 27-page treatise on netmasks. They really are the same question. Sometimes they're "The same question, but begin at Step 2" or something. But I really feel that the main need is better searchability, so people can find and upvote the right answer. Commented Jun 24 at 20:36
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    Which is fair. Part of what I'd like to do is do a better job linking these questions, and better search is something that'd benefit us all. Its also stuff that needs development, and we're told that's explicitly out of scope. Commented Jun 24 at 23:36
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    I agree that we want to do a better job of linking those (+1), but having a mile-high list of linked questions is worse UX than having a couple good ones. I recognize that the OP here said that technical solutions are off-topic, but this frankly all smells like "Please agree with the 'No assumption is sacred' blog post from 2020" to me. Commented Jun 25 at 0:01
  • While you are correct that the development aspects of this request are not in scope for this project, I do appreciate the spirit of what you are putting forward here. When it comes to the community taking a less zealous attitude towards duplicates, do you have any ideas as to how that can be achieved? Are there actions that the company, moderators, or other users could to encourage that change? Commented Jun 25 at 16:56
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    Well, the other post goes into that in detail. I've found that when trying to get the community to do things - the old Huck Finn painting the wall approach works well. The old way would be to have people bring up their posts on the per site meta, and get the community to reopen. Per site metas don't really have the reach for cultural change, and a new user wouldn't know to use it as such - so I'd say effectively encouraging reopens would be a start. And of course have folks who're effective advocates for these things to encourage it - both by 'words' - engaging in such meta posts Commented Jun 25 at 23:13
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    and in deeds, by encouraging people to reopen 'duplicates' of value, or being slightly less zealous about closures. In a different time, company leadership would be helpful, but currently I don't really think there's the right sort of relationship for that. Commented Jun 25 at 23:14
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    Yes, there are several users on EL&U who dupe-close everything they can and nearly always wrongly. They shoot new users straight in the face and wreck good questions. Commented Jun 28 at 14:47