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Pursuant to this Meta discussion, I propose the following:

All questions should be closed as soon as they have one answer, with the following notice:

This question already has an answer. If those answers do not fully address your question, please ask a new question.

Now I do not actually think this is a good idea, but it seems to me to logically follow from the upvoted answer there (see the comments there at length). Therefore, should this be implemented so that the policies are consistent?

Edit

Those who voted to close this question as primarily opinion-based, please see this Meta post.

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    I can't speak for the whole community, but I don't think this is a sensible question. It seems more like a passive-aggressive rant about a question you wanted to answer being put on hold. – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 5:24
  • @Valorum Judging by the five downvotes so far, I think most people agree that this is a silly idea. But the point of this question is to produce an answer that cogently explains how this is different from closing a question that happens to have an answer posted on a different question. – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 5:29
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    You know what they say about asking a silly question..... – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 5:31
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    @Valorum I didn't say the question was silly; I said the proposal is silly. – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 5:32
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    No, since over time new definite answers/word of God appear and put an end to the best speculations that happened before. This answer being, IMHO, the best recent example – Jenayah Jul 17 '18 at 7:41
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    This idea for change is either specious (as Valorum suggests) or is based entirely on the problem the asker has regarding a single question that has been closed as a duplicate. If we had a whole rash of questions closed as duplicates with similar alleged problems, then it might make sense to consider policy changes to address the wider problem, but in this case, there is no wider problem to address. The reason why humans and not automated processes handle the moderation here is because each case is different. It's not worth it to make a change because of one example. – Todd Wilcox Jul 17 '18 at 20:40
  • @ToddWilcox At least two people feel that this question itself is a duplicate, which would imply that the issue under discussion is not a one-time issue. – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 22:21
  • @Alex Compare these scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2400/… scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5148/… scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3684/… with the question. I can find more examples if you want. – Hans Olo Jul 18 '18 at 19:26
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    @Alex While I agree about your initial main question not being a duplicate this doesn't seem like a good way to make a point. We've had many discussions about duplication and, while we clearly have difficulties arriving to a solution, this kind of question only makes positions more rigid rather than contribute to solve the issue (IMHO). – Ram Jul 19 '18 at 2:17
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    @Ram You might be right. I just figured that a little reductio ad absurdum might help illustrate the point. – Alex Jul 19 '18 at 3:08
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    I understand your point, but I don't think a proposal like this is a good way to convince anyone. – Rand al'Thor♦ Jul 23 '18 at 6:00
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I'm going to leave the fact that this seems like a rant aside and assume you're asking with the best intentions of the community in mind.

No we shouldn't close questions after one answer is given.

It explicitly states on the stats page for Area 51 sites

On a healthy site, questions receive multiple answers and the best answer is voted to the top.
SFF stats page - Note this is after beta graduation in 2012

So no we shouldn't close after an answer is given, as this would break the model of SE, which is to have multiple answers with the highest quality one (ideally) being voted to the top of it's thread.

No we shouldn't close it with the reason given.

If a set of answers do not fully address your question, please DO NOT ask a new question. We have a specific bounty reason for this scenario. A lot of duplicate questions are closed because they're slight variations on a question because the OP felt the answers given in the linked weren't sufficient at answering the question. If that is the case please use the bounty system

Improve Details
The current answers do not contain enough detail.
Bounty reasons and post notices - Stack Overflow Blog

As for: "[the proposal] seems to me to logically follow from the upvoted answer there (see the comments there at length)". It indeed only seems to you to follow. TheLethalCarrot had immediately rejected the proposal as absurd given the two are in no way identical.

That is of course not an equivalent example. – TheLethalCarrot 9 hours ago

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  • If a set of answers do not fully address your question, please DO NOT ask a new question. This is not my wording. I actually it from the notice on duplicate questions. – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 5:50
  • TheLethalCarrot had immediately rejected the proposal as absurd given the two are in no way identical. Did you seem my follow-up comments there? (And not to be pedantic, but my comment there got one upvote so perhaps one other person thought that it logically follows?) – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:01
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    @Valorum As I responded to you here: Similarly a bounty would be useless because it would just be soliciting more answers to a different question. – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:08
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    @Alex - Allow the votes to be your guide. They're not two different questions, one is a slightly narrower aspect of the other (wider) question. – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 6:08
  • @Valorum So do you think that "There are X number of students at Hogwarts" would be a good answer to this question? – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:12
  • No, because that's not what it's asking. But the existing answers already address the question of how many students are at Hogwarts in considerable detail, which means that there's no need to ask another question. We just link 'em and move on – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 6:16
  • @Valorum And what if someone has an additional answer or a better answer than the existing answer? – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:18
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    @Alex - Then post it (and make a passing reference to house numbers to make sure it's on topic). If it's useful, it'll stick. – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 6:18
  • @Valorum It seems rather strange to have to include irrelevant information in order to be able to answer. Besides, what if the new answerer doesn't know anything about house numbers? – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:20
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    @Alex - Partial answers are also useful and get upvoted. If you've discovered a new source of info about Hogwarts student numbers, that would be worthy of an answer since it addresses the core question even if it doesn't answer it wholly. – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 6:35
  • @Valorum I'm confused. I thought you just said it doesn't address the question unless it makes reference to house numbers? – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:37
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    @Alex - That reference doesn't have to be extensive. Merely saying "Although this doesn't directly address house numbers, I've discovered x about student numbers" would be enough. – Valorum Jul 17 '18 at 6:38
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    @Valorum If that is true then that should be posted as an answer, because that actually addresses my point. (But I tend to think it's not true. If I had asked the question about house quotas and someone answered about total number of students I would probably downvote and/or suggest leaving it as a comment instead of an answer since it doesn't tell me anything about house quotas. I imagine others would do the same, but I might be mistaken.) – Alex Jul 17 '18 at 6:42

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