Can we close a question with the worse answer, instead of the more recent one?

Question

It's been standard for dupes to be closed if they're the same as an older question. Quick, simple, done with the press of a button. Some of these older questions, however, have worse answers than the "dupe". Take this and this for example -- the first link would be considered the dupe, but does it not have a better answer than the original? Replays and sources (plus better grammar) make it look more presentable and helpful. I really don't see why we usually only close the recent questions for being dupes, when it's clear that some of them have better answers than the original.

This isn't to say that new questions should be made for the sole purpose of making one with better grammar -- someone can just edit the old question to look better and post a better answer. But if the new question was already inadvertently created, and it's better, do we really need to close it when we could be closing the worse question?

Comments

I feel like this could very easily turn into people trying to find old and outdated questions just so they can ask them again themselves in a cheap attempt to get points. There'd really be no way to know if they did or didn't know of the other question, so we couldn't really do anything about it.

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Alternative solution, add a feature for merging questions or moving answers when closing for dupes. Answers merged into a new question get a mark or something to distonguish them.

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Like an option similar to “Convert answer to comment”, except it being “move answer to question: ________”. If such a thing were implemented, it would probably be an Editor+ permission, or only show up if the question was closed for being a dupe.
Although, copying and pasting your answer content into the old question isn’t very hard. :P

Answer 1

Yes. I personally do this already.

Obviously, it is preferable that we keep all the answers existing to the same question. But we are working within constraints and keeping the best content is the easiest solution available.

Although, copying and pasting your answer content into the old question isn’t very hard.

This would be nice, but it's not pleasant chasing people up about re-posting answers constantly. No guarantees they ever will, which makes it an inconsistent solution.

I don't think that should be made the "protocol" but other people may disagree.

I feel like this could very easily turn into people trying to find old and outdated questions just so they can ask them again themselves in a cheap attempt to get points.

I don't think people would actually do this, but if they do and that becomes clear, then we will make them stop. I think it's a silly way to get points, because you already know the thread is likely to be closed.

add a feature for merging questions or moving answers

This would be nice. Moving answers especially would be great.

Comments

Thanks!

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Either of you want to post a separate suggestion thread asking Pokemaster to let you move answers?

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@sumwun It wasn't my idea, so not particularly. Staka should be the one posting it, if they want to.