The problem has been resolved. Thanks everyone!

I posted this question a few weeks ago and originally it only asked about the Game of Life so it was closed as a duplicate of Shortest Game of Life. I changed the question to allow all life-like automata but it was closed again to my confusion. As someone said, there are distinct questions about rule 110 and 1D cellular automata so I didn't see how it was still a duplicate.

My argument is that my question was incorrectly marked as a duplicate when it was closed the second time, namely because:

so I would like Life can be colorful! reopened.

(Now irrelevant side-note:
I had reposted the question but I realize that was the wrong thing to do. I should have made a meta post, so here it is.)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Please don't delete your questions and then post them again. If your question was closed, it was closed for a reason, and just because the post has a new post ID doesn't mean that reason doesn't exist anymore. For the time being, I have re-closed it, but if you edit your question and enough people think it's different enough, they can vote to reopen it. \$\endgroup\$ – Doorknob Sep 23 '14 at 11:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Doorknob Well could I at least have that reason? Surely you agree that my question is a generalization of codegolf.stackexchange.com/questions/3434/shortest-game-of-life. I'm sorry for reposting, but honestly, all this red tape is ridiculous. \$\endgroup\$ – user31074 Sep 23 '14 at 11:51
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    \$\begingroup\$ It's somewhat borderline, as the bulk of the challenge is just the Game of Life simulation anyway. (Yes, yours is generalized to any cellular automaton, but it's trivial to change a few constants into user input.) However, again, if the community thinks that it's okay and not a duplicate, it will be reopened. \$\endgroup\$ – Doorknob Sep 23 '14 at 11:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ Whatever you do, can you please delete the new one, undelete the old one, apply the changes to that, and try to get that reopened? With the changes, I'd definitely be in favour of reopen and upvoting the old post, but I won't take my close and downvote off the new one, because circumventing SE's core systems (in this case the close/reopen concept) is not the way to go. \$\endgroup\$ – Martin Ender Sep 24 '14 at 22:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MartinBüttner Sure, I can understand that. I admit making the new one was a mistake, just the stagnant old one was frustrating. \$\endgroup\$ – user31074 Sep 24 '14 at 22:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @StandardToaster Next time, just post on meta or in chat right away if you think a close vote has been unjustified or it doesn't get enough attention after reopening. The people closing your question are generally interested in making it reopen-worthy ;) (especially if upvotes show that it's in principle a good idea). \$\endgroup\$ – Martin Ender Sep 24 '14 at 22:47
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MartinBüttner Alright. Btw I considered what you said about the 3D option but at this point I'm kind of nervous to change things any more than I need to. :S \$\endgroup\$ – user31074 Sep 24 '14 at 22:51

This happens a lot, and there are a few meta posts about closing duplicates if you want some background. From the discussions i have seen, its usually comes down to whether answers from one question could be copied to another with minimal changes (other times its more arbitrary). Since this is community run, the best thing you can do is gain enough rep to cast re-open votes and use them whenever you see question being closed un-necessarily.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Thanks, but surely since my question involves reading/writing images (not to mention the generalization) the other answers could hardly be copied over. It seems to me there could be dozens of interesting GoL/CA implementation challenges. I don't see why they should all be overshadowed by one little old question. \$\endgroup\$ – user31074 Sep 24 '14 at 22:43

It happens, sometimes people blindly vote to close a question as duplicate because they are too lazy to carefully read the question or they simply act out of frustration. All you can do is just delete the question and search for an answer in another Q&A community. Re-posting the question is outright bad, while editing it is usually useless.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Do you have any indication this question was closed blindly or out of frustration? I recall quite a bit of talk about it in comments and chat, so obviously at least some of the voters put thought into it. This answer reads like an insult to those who put time into moderating the site. \$\endgroup\$ – Geobits Oct 3 '14 at 13:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Geobits I'm sorry if I was not explicit: I was not referring to the OP's duplicate-marked question, that's why I used the word sometimes. I have encountered a specific example some time ago (I don't want to dig for dead bodies now), I was only answering in a general view. \$\endgroup\$ – Bogdan Alexandru Oct 3 '14 at 14:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ Why answer here, then? This asks about a specific question (already edited/reopened over a week ago) that your answer doesn't apply to. \$\endgroup\$ – Geobits Oct 3 '14 at 14:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Geobits I disagree. The OP basically said "I asked a question that has wrongfully been marked as duplicate" as if he was searching for an explanation, and I answered him "It's not necessarily your question that was bad, but rather the judgement of those who have closed it". \$\endgroup\$ – Bogdan Alexandru Oct 3 '14 at 14:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Basically, my answer is similar to the chosen one (This happens a lot), except that I also added an explanation. I wasn't trying to insult anybody, I was merely telling the OP that not all people are perfect and that finding another site to post the question may be better and faster in getting a response. \$\endgroup\$ – Bogdan Alexandru Oct 3 '14 at 14:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ And of course I am getting down-voted because telling the truth is not always pleasant :) \$\endgroup\$ – Bogdan Alexandru Oct 3 '14 at 14:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ Your first sentence arguably doesn't apply (it seems this question was given thought, not closed blindly). Your second suggests the only option is to delete and post elsewhere (clearly not true, since it has already been edited/reopened). The last implies editing is useless, which is not true here at all. So no, my downvote wasn't for "telling the truth". \$\endgroup\$ – Geobits Oct 3 '14 at 14:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ One can find arguments for just about anything without changing opinions, so alright let's move on. \$\endgroup\$ – Bogdan Alexandru Oct 3 '14 at 15:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ This doesn't seem so unpleasant... People can always vote to reopen if they feel that the question has been wrongly closed. \$\endgroup\$ – Beta Decay Oct 3 '14 at 16:38

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