What is our policy on new redundant answers to old questions?

Question

I flagged an answer today.

The key factors were:

1. It was posted almost four years after the question was posted and received an accepted answer.
2. It was just one line which merely rephrased what the accepted answer had established about four years ago.

At worst, this is plagiarism. At best, It was redundant and added nothing new of value to the post.

Giving the guy benefit of doubt, I decided not to raise a custom flag accusing him of plagiarism. Instead, I raised a VLQ flag given the length and content.

The flag was rejected.

What is our policy on such answers? What should we do when we see an answer which merely parrots what other users had contributed years ago?

In my opinion, such answers should be removed as:

1. They are redundant and add nothing new of value.
2. They could be upvoted (Not sure by who but it happens every now and then), giving that person rep s/he doesn't deserve.
3. It is unfair to the person who answered before that their contribution is rephrased without any credits to them on that very thread.
4. Given that there is an interval of an extended period of time between the old answer and the new answer, it is highly unlikely that the new person hadn't read the older answer before posting h/is/er own. So that in turn makes it very unlikely that this was done in good faith.

Answer 1

Do not flag posts because they only repeat existing information. Those flags should be, and usually are, declined. Downvote, comment, and move on.

Answers should be evaluated on their own merits. Not other answers, not whether there's an accepted answer, and especially not who the author is.

There's no time limit on responses, no rule against posting on a question with an accepted answer, and no rule here requiring answers to present new and unique information. In short, there's no cause for a mod to delete new answers that say the same thing in new words. Downvote, comment, and move on.

Plagiarism is direct copy-and-paste, with at most a word changed here or there. Rephrasing another answer is not plagiarism.

If you do encounter an answer that is substantially a word-for-word copy of an existing answer (or any other source) as-is without quoting and sourcing it, flag that with a custom reason explaining that it's directly copied and link to where it's copied from.

"Very low quality" flags are rarely appropriate, and really should be removed entirely.

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As to your specific example, the answer is not copied, answers the question directly and clearly, and even cites a source (which we don't actually require anyway). There is nothing wrong with the answer.

Answer 2

I downvote, flag, and comment on why I feel it duplicates the existing answer if it's a straight restatement.

If it looks like good intentions, I'll just comment, asking the answerer how they feel it improves upon the accepted answer.