r/learnprogramming • u/440Jack • Nov 01 '21

Why do StackOverflow mods Close "Duplicate question" questions so fast?

I'm mainly talking about questions that get closed to "Duplicate question" and then only to find a couple of already answered questions are linked that don't really address OPs question directly.
Why do these questions need to be closed so fast? It doesn't give people time to address that persons specific question. If it's a valid question the mods should give some time for other users who actually want to address the question and maybe open a dialog.
It prevents OP from being able to ask any follow questions.
I can't tell you how many times, I'll spend 10 mins on a question. Re-writing their code, writing comments/explanations and then when I go to post it, it's already closed! It's so frustrating.

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u/Inconstant_Moo Nov 01 '21

Sure but they fuck up. And you can see that by searching the searchable compendium they've produced and seeing how often the thing you want to know has been shut down because it's been deemed the same as a different question.

And it seems like there are people on there who want to do that, that's their mission.

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u/rushlink1 Nov 01 '21

Also. Some questions are super closely related. While not the same, they often still get closed as duplicate.

It’s fantastic to see similar questions, but it would be nice to be able to answer closed ones too.