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I am trying to add a reply to an open-ended question using the new editor. My first reply had formatting problems which I could not see how to fix, so I temporarily deleted it whilst attending to some other matter. But now when I try to add a new, slightly edited version, I keep getting the message "This post appears to be a duplicate of [link]". Of course, the link goes nowhere, since I deleted the original reply it relates to. I tried waiting a few hours, clearing the cache and cookies, but no matter what I do, I cannot add a new reply. Every time I click the reply button, ironically, an exact duplicate of the same error message is added to the list:

enter image description here

The link to the zombie reply is this: Web page interaction inside PySide6.QtWebEngine.

Is this editor broken, or is there some unintuitive trick I need to learn in order to post my new reply?

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    I suspect this is something to do with how replies to opinion-based questions are answers in the back-end so this is a holdover error from traditional Q&A Commented Dec 18, 2025 at 20:37
  • It does seem that it is working as expected, and stopping you from reposting an answer (we'd also get a mod flag for it if you did that). Editing the post is the right solution. Perhaps you should actually be asking about how to fix the formatting issues. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 8:58
  • Hmm, I wonder if the fact you couldn't fix the formatting issue is related to this. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 9:27
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    @ThomA That makes no sense at all. As stated in my question, I deleted the original reply, and then tried to post a newly edited version that fixed the formatting (which again, you can clearly see from the screenshot). It looks like there's some flaky fuzzy matching process that is finding "close" matches in the deletion history and wrongly reporting them as "duplicates". Replies to opinion-based questions should work like comments, not answers. There has never been an issue with deleting and reposting comments, even if they're exct matches. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 12:25
  • "Replies to opinion-based questions should work like comments, not answers." They aren't comments, they're answers. Comments are limited to around 400 characters, so posting longer "comments" wouldn't be possible. Comments should exist on the opinion-based questions as well (they don't), but your post wasn't appropriate for a comment anyway. This is why correcting the post was the correct solution. That you couldn't, because of another bug, is relevant, but I don't think that the system stopping you from posting an almost identical answer is a problem here; we don't want those. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 12:32
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    @ThomA But I'm clearly not posting a nearly identical answer, since the question currently has no answers of any kind at all. Answers to opinion-based questions are much more like comments than answers, since it wouldn't be appropriate to answer a normal question that was opinion-based. This is why these posts are called "Replies", rather than comments or answers. But either way, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to delete and repost a reply, even if it's identical. Would it be possible for a mod to clear the history, so I can post my reply and move on? Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 12:51
  • PS: there's one other very important point to make. Even if I remove 90% of the so-called "duplicate" and add some completely different text, the reply button remains disabled. In fact, after removing all the text and adding something completely new, the reply button still remains disabled. Have I now been blocked from adding further replies to this question because of the broken editing history? Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 12:58
  • "since the question currently has no answers of any kind at all" The question has 1 (deleted) answer at the moment, and your statement conflicts with what you stated in your question here on Meta "so I temporarily deleted it whilst attending to some other matter. But now when I try to add a new, slightly edited version," So you didn't delete the answer and attempt to post a new answer later? Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 13:47
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    @ThomA But that is the only option I've got, so I don't see what point you're trying to make. If this was a deleted answer, I could simply edit it, and then undelete it. But it's not an answer, it's a reply, which is a completely different thing. The fact that replies seem to use the same backend as answers is merely an implementation detail, which should have no relevance to how the user interface works. I really cannot understand why you're digging your heels in on this. The current system is clearly broken, since I cannot now start a conversion with someone who is asking for help. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 14:39
  • "But it's not an answer This is what I have mentioned before, it is an answer; it appears in your deleted answers. Please do not post duplicate answers. If you wish to improve your answer, then use the edit feature. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 15:10
  • @ThomA But as I stated clearly in my question: "the link goes nowhere". I cannot access the reply to edit or undelete it, which I've also already explained several times in the comments above. I can edit normal deleted Q&A posts, but that option is just not available to me for replies, which I is why I say they are not answers. Perhaps you see something different because you have mod privileges, but when I follow the link, it just takes me back to the question. The deleted answer list gives the same useless link that appears in the error message, so that doesn't help either. Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 19:37
  • You don't actually state you can't access your deleted answer in your question here, @ekhumoro . That's important information that should be included. As a mod, I can, and I expected you to be able to see it as well, as the author of the deleted answer (and a 10k user). Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 20:25
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    @ThomA Mods forgetting they can see things others can't happens fairly regularly. However, I don't use MSO much, so it took a while for this to dawn on me. My question states quite clearly that "the link goes nowhere". To me, replies to open-ended question look exactly like threaded comments, not answers - and that's what most other people seem to assume (judging by all the ones I have looked at). It just never occurred to me that deleting a reply would be any different to deleting a comment. I remain totally unconvinced that replies are equivalent to answers ;-) Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 22:39
  • @ThomA PS: are mods able to remove deleted replies? This would be very helpful, as it should allow me to re-post my original reply. Otherwise, I could be waiting forever for the problem to be fixed. If that's not possible, could you perhaps modify my reply so the links work properly (i.e. by unescaping the square brackets), and then undelete it? Commented Dec 19, 2025 at 22:47
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    I've undeleted it, and fixed the links for you. Commented Dec 20, 2025 at 11:03

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Thanks for reporting!

We've just released a fix so that this specific duplicate post validation, intended for traditional Q&A answers, does not run on replies to opinion-based questions.

So if you'd like to retry, that should now submit.

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