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I think it's not appropriate that someone just copies someone else's answer. Or even post an answer to a question that is essentially the same as others.

Imagine someone asking: How to do X? And the answers: A1: You do Y to do X. (January 2015, 0 upvotes) A2: You have to do Y to do X. (March 2016, 15 upvotes)

This is just unfair.

This happens in this question: "Error Applying Security - Access is denied" while changing file permissions on windows server 2008

See Cheng Bo's older answer compared to the upvoted Jevunal's answer. Users should not just paste duplicate answers.

My question: what to do in the case? Should I flag? Should moderators delete duplicate answer?

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    Apparently a moderator failed to pick up on the fact that the answer was actually a thank-you answer to cheng bo and instead removed the thanks and left the answer so it looked plagiarized. And someone else edited the answer to add a completely new statement after that.
    – BoltClock
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:51
  • @Pang + Quill, Ah yes! I forgot I was coming from Server Fault. Should this question be flagged to have it moved?
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:53
  • @BoltClock You can see the post scores 0 down vote, he should've just upvoted instead of plagiarised
    – Quill
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:53
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    @Quill: Why are you telling me this?
    – BoltClock
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:54
  • @BoltClock, I see! Yes, that explains it very well. Checking the history was the smart thing to do...
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:55
  • Now Cheng Bo has two up votes :D justice prevails when he gets more up votes
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 4, 2016 at 5:56
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    Someone taked care of it, that answer now seem deleted. A 10K user could confirm it.
    – yagmoth555 Mod
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 15:02
  • 1
    I think it's because I flagged it. I also flagged this question and it was moved from StackOverflow meta... Everything seems ok now :D
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 15:06

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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It appears that a moderator missed the fact that this post was a copy of another answer, with "Thanks" appended.

I won't speak for him, but I will say that in response to some flags I deleted the non-answer several days ago.

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  • Yeah, I eventually mustered courage to flag it after the comments here. Thannks, good job. Now it feels better
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 15:16
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As the moderator concerned, not that it really matters, but at the time I was not yet elected.

Second I made that edit when that answer popped up in First Posts review queue where one only sees such an answer in isolation. As a matter of routine I improved the formatting some and removed what appeared a typical first time user trying to sign an answer with "Thanks".

Down vote a verbatim copied answer, leaving a comment to that effect and flagging for deletion or moderator attention are all useful actions to take.

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    Thanks HBruijn for sharing your experience and clarifying the root cause.
    – Lzh
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 16:34

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