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Each site has it's own independent database. When you close as dupe it creates a PostHistory entry referencing the dupe Question by the Post ID (int) only. This could be changed, add a field specifying the DB as well, but that's a lot of extra complexity for a relatively minor feature.
People miss Questions too, we all get busy sometimes. Looking through some of the unanswered Powershell Questions I'm answering a few of them, just haven't seen them before.
@Andrew, I wasn't sure if he meant to say Singe; or if he meant to say since (which makes sense in the sentence, where the former does not). Sometimes multiple thoughts make it into the same sentence. I'm not confident enough to edit it one way or the other...
It's not a sustained situation, it's cyclic. We're in a "ebb" right now, but in the next we months we'll "flow" again. There's no shortage of new users and Questions; it's the quality thereof that seems to change.
@EirNym They're not duplicates. The first is concerned with testing HTML on different rendering engines. The second is concerned with conflicting installations of MS Office. While the ultimate objective might be the same, the task is not.
The "big problem" with old Questions is that the circumstances of the situation are commonly unclear and the Questioner is highly unlikely to respond to calls for clarification. Also it's quite common that the problem no longer exists for wholly unrelated reasons (no longer using the system, no longer a requirement, etc).
@gbn Understandably I used SQL terminology, but most of the concepts still apply. Installing, configuring, and maintaining the software is SF. Data storage conventions and retrieval architecture belong on DBA.SE. API interactions belong on SO.
