Not really, but this is the tip of a much larger iceberg anyways. SO has always had problems with this sort of thing
The problem is that the post that should be closed and downvoted was instead answered (three times) and upvoted, until the meta effect kicked in. Clearly these tools aren't sufficient to deal with this problem.
The proper way to deal with this is to close the question. This is why we have dupehammers, so well trusted users can close questions like this as duplicates, hopefully before any answers are given. Unfortunately, you've got a lot of people who want to Always Help
Helpers can become Always Helpers. They believe that every question deserves an answer. That's what SO is for, right? So they made a typo? Give an answer. They just described a general programming idea without any code? Give an answer. Homework dump? Give an answer. The rules don't matter, just help everyone. And they get Internet Points for doing it. What was the downside again?
As long as people just "want to help" (neither of the top answerers seem to have much interest in moderation or review) and have no interest in trying to encourage some level of effort before doing so, this will continue. Just vote to close and move on. I do that every day...
