4 ms·

> Closing dupes is a feature not a bug Yes, but it's implemented in a user-hostile manner that kills engagement and therefore retention. A friendlier implemen

by philbo 2y ago

> Closing dupes is a feature not a bug Yes, but it's implemented in a user-hostile manner that kills engagement and therefore retention. A friendlier implementation imo, would be for the asker to be shown the duplicated answer(s) inline under their question, with a note that it's a dupe and a link to the original question(s). That leaves them with a vastly different experience, and regular users can still continue to see it as just closed. Kinda like shadow banning, but healthier.

klez 2y ago
> A friendlier implementation imo, would be for the asker to be shown the duplicated answer(s) inline under their question, with a note that it's a dupe and a link to the original question(s). That would occupy a lot of space. What's wrong with the current approach of posting a link to the duplicate? Mind you, when the first user votes to close as a duplicate, the system automatically posts a comment with a text more or less like "this question already has an answer on this link http://stackoverflow.com/ http://stackoverflow.com/.... If you think this case is different please state why". Then after three votes the question gets closed. But please notice it can still be reopened. Users with 3000+ reputations (so not only what many people percieve as sort of barons on stackoverflow) can vote to reopen. And three votes are enough to reopen a question.
- kamaal 2y ago
  >>What's wrong with the current approach of posting a link to the duplicate? Simple. The user's problem is not solved. The whole point of StackOverflow was to help people get answers to their questions. If you fail at this, you lose your relevance. >>Users with 3000+ reputations (so not only what many people percieve as sort of barons on stackoverflow) can vote to reopen. And three votes are enough to reopen a question. You don't have to under go these rituals in front of LLMs just to get your problem solved. Even until now, StackOverflow had no competition, so it didn't matter. Now that there are alternatives. People won't put up with user hostile experience.
ahmahxee 2y ago
Instead of closing dups, I think they should go into a pile and "a link" shows you the list. The reader can then sift through them. Literal duplicates could still be closed from there. I've run into many closed dups where the original answer, while still correct, didn't click for me where the closed question got responses that gave me the Aha! moment. SEO the hell out of the "pile pages" so the top hits go to something useful, as opposed to a closed question with everyone commenting that it's the top Google result.
- Etheryte 2y ago
  This is already the case, all linked questions are shown in the right sidebar and you can easily navigate through the graph, both up and down.

by philbo 2y ago

klez 2y ago

> A friendlier implementation imo, would be for the asker to be shown the duplicated answer(s) inline under their question, with a note that it's a dupe and a link to the original question(s). That would occupy a lot of space. What's wrong with the current approach of posting a link to the duplicate? Mind you, when the first user votes to close as a duplicate, the system automatically posts a comment with a text more or less like "this question already has an answer on this link http://stackoverflow.com/ http://stackoverflow.com/.... If you think this case is different please state why". Then after three votes the question gets closed. But please notice it can still be reopened. Users with 3000+ reputations (so not only what many people percieve as sort of barons on stackoverflow) can vote to reopen. And three votes are enough to reopen a question.

kamaal 2y ago
>>What's wrong with the current approach of posting a link to the duplicate? Simple. The user's problem is not solved. The whole point of StackOverflow was to help people get answers to their questions. If you fail at this, you lose your relevance. >>Users with 3000+ reputations (so not only what many people percieve as sort of barons on stackoverflow) can vote to reopen. And three votes are enough to reopen a question. You don't have to under go these rituals in front of LLMs just to get your problem solved. Even until now, StackOverflow had no competition, so it didn't matter. Now that there are alternatives. People won't put up with user hostile experience.

ahmahxee 2y ago

Instead of closing dups, I think they should go into a pile and "a link" shows you the list. The reader can then sift through them. Literal duplicates could still be closed from there. I've run into many closed dups where the original answer, while still correct, didn't click for me where the closed question got responses that gave me the Aha! moment. SEO the hell out of the "pile pages" so the top hits go to something useful, as opposed to a closed question with everyone commenting that it's the top Google result.

Etheryte 2y ago
This is already the case, all linked questions are shown in the right sidebar and you can easily navigate through the graph, both up and down.