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What is the correct course of action when reviewing late answers that, while technically correct, retread the same ground as previous (much more thorough) answers?

A new answer to an old question popped up in the "low quality" review queue: Convert int to string?

The question itself is nearly 4 years old and the existing answers thoroughly address the question. At this point, it'd be an unusual answer that provided new, useful information not already covered by previous answers.

There have been two new answers recently (one from today and one from April - since deleted). The answers are simple one-liners covered by multiple previous answers. But they fully and correctly answer the (really simple) question, so I'm not sure they're "low quality" in the context of the question.

I'm not sure what the correct course of action(s) is/are, or if no action is necessary.

  • Should they be downvoted? Four years ago, they would've been useful and probably upvoted. But not anymore, given the existing higher-quality answers.

  • Should they be deleted? These new answers don't need to exist. But none of the reasons for deleting that show up in the review queue seem appropriate.

  • Looking for an answer, I came across the guidelines for protecting questions, but that seems inappropriate since the question is not attracting spam or non-answer answers ("thank you", etc).

  • Should I just leave a comment asking them to elaborate, as their answers were already previously covered? Really not much to elaborate on!

  • Should they just be left as-is? In which case, a year from now there could be a dozen more one-line answers covering the same ground. Granted, they'll drop to the bottom of the post with 0 votes, but it seems silly to leave them there.

In the end, I voted to delete them both.

Checking back in the review queue, I see some reviewers going one way, some the other. Generally weighted towards deleting, but again, I'm not positive that's the appropriate action.

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  • This answer: stackoverflow.com/a/23764768/1355315 is not even an answer. It simply picks up a new topic altogether and slams it into the context. No reason at all. Commented May 21, 2014 at 13:59
  • Talking about this question, if you look at this answer: stackoverflow.com/a/22603501/468793 it does not even try to answer the question, it should have been a comment at best. Commented May 21, 2014 at 14:10

4 Answers 4

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Answers that merely parrot information that someone has already provided earlier (for some significant amount of time earlier) in lesser detail don't add any value.

Raise a custom moderator flag and explain the problem, for example: "This answer is a duplicate of an answer already posted two years ago". Please make sure to include in the flag text a link to the original answer.

Do not flag it as plagiarism, unless it's a word-for-word copy.

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    I would add that a downvote and a comment would be appropriate. This will help if the mods decline the flag (which sounds like it wouldn't happen in this situation) or may get the answerer to delete their post hence relieving the mods from needing to deal with it. Also, the person will understand why it isn't good. Commented May 20, 2014 at 18:08
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I cannot say for sure that this is the accepted procedure, but this is what I do in general for answers that does not add anything to other answers, new or old, to new or old questions. If the question is old, skip to 3:

  1. If it is a fresh question and many answers pop up at the same time, I'll wait at few days (or forget the whole thing) before I act. In the beginning, edits of own answers are common and you never know which answer that will be the best in the end.

  2. If the question and the answers are at least a couple of days old so that the answers have had time to settle, I raise a custom moderator flag with the message "this does not add anything to any of the other answers".

  3. If it is a new answer to an old question I usually downvote and add a comment that says "please don't answer if you don't have anything to add to existing answers". If they don't delete the answer, I'll flag it like in (2).

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From what I gather moderators are far from up-to-date with the housekeeping that only they or SE staff are authorised for. Faster action from them (right or wrong!) would be of general benefit. So it is not desirable to rely on mods for what can be achieved without their involvement.

And there is no need for their involvement in a situation such as described. The key downvoting guidance is very simple This answer is not useful. There is no way a duplicate answer (whether one second or one year later than what it duplicates) is other than … not useful. If you want to add ‘weight’ to one approach rather than another where more than one solution has been offered, upvote the better solution, don’t repeat it, nor condone others doing so.

Downvote duplicates if they are just that – though bear in mind many answers may cover the same ground but add a fresh slant or cover a corner case, which is useful. Where you have the privilege of downvoting duplicates do not flag.

If two answers are the same and there is a time interval between them, downvote the redundant (ie later) one regardless of the duration between the answers.

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    If you said 'one day or one year', I'd agree with you on the usefulness. When you say 'one second', you overstate any case you may have. Two answers even one minute apart could be coincidental; probably are coincidental. Somewhere between one minute and one hour is where the border falls; before that, the similar answers are coincidence, but after that, it is not unreasonable to consider the second to be 'not useful' just because of its timing. That said, the content of the answers would have to be very similar to warrant the down vote on those grounds. It happens, but not all that often. Commented May 21, 2014 at 0:40
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If the question is likely to attract further such answers in the future, I'd consider protecting it. However, the FAQ suggests doing so only if it is attracting a lot of poor answers:

When should I protect or unprotect a question? ... Do protect questions that are attracting a lot of non-answers or very poor answers (spam, etc.) from new users.

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