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Say there exists a story ID question that lists details A and B and has an accepted answer.

If a user posts another question that lists details C and D and you're absolutely sure that the answer is the same as the first question, should the second one be marked as a duplicate?

On the one hand both questions are asking about the same work, on the other they have different content.

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  • We generally do not close story ID questions unless the user has indicated (through acceptance or a comment) that the answerer has found the right work. One very narrow exception that I've seen is when the same user reposts the same question.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 7:59
  • Ironic that this is marked as duplicate.
    – jcm
    Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 14:54

2 Answers 2

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What you're describing is a fairly common occurrence with questions.

Question 1 ...

Question 1 - I'm thinking of a film that has metal people from the future trying to kill a woman named Sally.

A. This is 'The Terminator'. The metal people are called Terminators and the heroine is actually called Sarah.

... is still a dupe of Question 2 ...

Question 2 - I'm thinking of a film where a psychiatrist interviews a man from the future and doesn't believe him

... even though none of the points raised in Question 2 are addressed in the answer to Question 1. That's just how we roll, I'm afraid.

We also have a policy

Closing Story-Ident questions as duplicates (where there's no acceptance)

to prevent potential dupes being closed until there's an agreement from the OP that their question is actually a duplicate.

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  • I think the asker was specifically addressing the case where only one question has an accepted answer. I thought they both had to be accepted in order to dupe.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 8:04
  • @Obie2.0 - I think he's asking both things, but without knowing what the policy is. I've edited accordingly.
    – Valorum
    Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 8:06
  • Yes, I was asking about the case where only one has an answer but it's good to know the other case as well.
    – jcm
    Commented Jun 25, 2016 at 14:51
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Short answer:

If a user posts another question that lists details C and D and you're absolutely sure that the answer is the same as the first question, should the second one be marked as a duplicate?

YES, where 'absolutely sure' is defined to mean 'the original posters of both questions have verified that the answers are correct'.

This policy was agreed upon here.

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