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Example: A high-rep user proposed to close my 2019 Q as a duplicate of a 2024 Q, and top that he only answered the latter with UK data, while my answer was more general (European countries).

I think kind of behavior is especially lame, but if the community thinks otherwise, let me know.

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    No. Age of posts is not a relevant consideration for duplicate closure.
    – Nij
    Commented Jun 16 at 7:30

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I couldn't find any guidelines for this on our meta, but according to posts on the main SE meta closing an older question as a duplicate of a newer one is perfectly fine if the newer one has better answers.

From the community wiki answer on How does duplicate closing work? When is a question a duplicate, and how should duplicate questions be handled?:

Which question is the duplicate?

Usually a recent question will be closed as a duplicate of an older question, but this isn't an absolute rule. The general rule is to keep the question with the best collection of answers, and close the other one as a duplicate. If the selected target question is unanswered, in most cases, the system won't even let you pick it as a duplicate target - see the "Unanswered duplicates" bullet point in Should I flag for moderator attention? below for more info.

If one question has great answers but bad wording, and the other has poor or no answers but great wording, edit the badly-worded question and close the other one as a duplicate.

If in doubt, close the more recent question as a duplicate. The goal is to point people at a definite answer to a certain question, so if a newer question has a detailed or accepted answer then

The point is to steer people towards definitive answers to a question, and if both questions have an answer then we may as well go with the higher quality one.

In this case the newer question got more attention, more answers (including a rewritten version of your old answer), and one of the answers was accepted, so I think it was the right call to close the older one rather than the newer one.

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    Arguably that newer Q did not have "the best collection of answers" at that time. The OP accepted my reposted and slightly updated answer to my older Q. Of course, if we go by HNQ votes instead... Anyway, I'll remember to VTC Qs just because I disagree with answers not being 'the best'. Useful gaming strategy for a gamification site like this. :P
    – Make StackExchange GREAT 4ever
    Commented Jun 15 at 17:04
  • @gottrolledtoomuchthisweek Others don't seem to agree with that, and honestly the data provided on top voted answer in the newest question providing the results of snap elections is the most useful answer.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jun 15 at 21:54
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When there are multiple questions that should be closed as a duplicate of each other the only thing that matters in choosing which one to stay open is overall quality of the question and answer age doesn't factor into it. There is no reason a higher quality question/answer should be closed over a lower quality question/answer just because it was asked at a later date.

The purpose of closing questions on duplicates is to help people find the best answer for their question and not just find the first one that was asked.

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  • Are you suggesting my Q & A was 'low quality'? Given stuff like politics.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/6855/…
    – Make StackExchange GREAT 4ever
    Commented Jun 15 at 14:25
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    @againstverylongusernames Did I say anything about your question/answer or the other one you linked to? No I didn't make any suggestions about the quality of either of them, I just pointed out that age isn't a factor and shouldn't be considered when choosing which question to close as a duplicate. You asked about closing questions as duplicates in general and a single example isn't relevant to how people should act.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jun 15 at 14:27
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    The athlete getting a silver medal at the Olympics had a lower quality performance than the one getting a gold medal, but it's a bit strange, interpreting that phrase to mean they had a low quality performance.
    – Nij
    Commented Jun 16 at 7:32

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