6

This question was asked today: R2 has a color holoprojector?

And some are saying that it is a potential dup of this one.: Why are most holograms blue in Star Wars?

It is certainly a legitimate dup target, but I am hesitant to close as dup because neither question has a good answer.

Insofar as I know, dup targets should be the question with the best answer. It doesn't have to be the accepted answer, but that always helps. However, do we have a policy in place for when you have dup but no good answers between them?

(and on a slightly related note, someone should write a good answer for one of these questions so that this issue becomes a moot point).

  • 5
    Dupes are not necessarily always pointed due to the answer. They're sometimes pointed due to the better, broader question that encompasses the other one. – phantom42 Aug 3 '17 at 18:40
  • 5
    No good answers in your opinion... – Valorum Aug 3 '17 at 19:02
  • 2
    4 people thought that the answer on the first question was good, and worthy of their upvote. – Valorum Aug 3 '17 at 19:31
6

Following are the community guidelines (For broader Stack Exchange network at least) on how to choose a Dupe target:

Usually a recent question will be closed as a duplicate of an older question, but this isn't an absolute rule. The general rule is to keep the question with the best collection of answers, and close the other one as a duplicate. If the selected target question is unanswered, the system won't even let you pick it as a duplicate target.

If one question has great answers but bad wording, and the other has poor or no answers but great wording, edit the badly-worded question and close the other one as a duplicate.

If in doubt, close the more recent question as a duplicate.

The quality of answers is subjective which is why we leave it to community to vet and mostly we trust each others judgement.

In your specific case, As you say that neither have good answers but both potentially have the same answer, you should choose the one broader, better-worded question as dupe target and close the other one as its duplicate as Phantom42 suggested.

As you noted, in case both have answers, generally we tend to choose the one with better answers even if it is badly worded. As above quoted guidelines suggest, one should improve the wording of the badly-worded questions if it has better answers.

In any case, right now, this question has already been closed as duplicate of this one by community review as the target indeed looks like it is result of a more through research.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .