I have flagged many questions on Stack Overflow as duplicate and the flags are dismissed as helpful by a moderator, but the questions are not closed. One example is a question regarding Android development in C#, which is definitely a duplicate of another question here, here, and here.

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Sometimes a moderator will mark your flag as helpful even if they decide not to act on it. –  NullUserException อ_อ Dec 17 '11 at 5:44
My question is why ? I understand that deleting a duplicate question is not a good idea because they can act as "Flag bearers" to an existing question, but why not close them ? –  Vamsi Krishna Dec 17 '11 at 5:49
It turns out the system automatically cleared your flag (as helpful) when someone cast an actual close vote to the question. –  NullUserException อ_อ Dec 17 '11 at 5:52
So isn't that a duplicate question ? –  Vamsi Krishna Dec 17 '11 at 5:54
It is a dupe, but it takes 5 users (3 more, in this case) to vote it so. Apparently if we vote from within the 10K tools to close it, it clears the close-vote flag, but the question is still 1 vote closer to doom. ;) –  Awesome Poodles Dec 17 '11 at 8:04
@BrockAdams ok thanks –  Vamsi Krishna Dec 17 '11 at 9:19
@NullUserExceptionอ_อ That would be the answer to what asked here. –  kiamlaluno Dec 17 '11 at 15:29
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1 Answer

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I often mark a flag as "useful" because I can understand why the flagger flagged it, but ultimately I disagree with the flag.

For example, if I see a question linking to a dupe, and it's pretty close but not close enough, I still mark it as helpful because they had a pretty valid point, and I don't want to discourage them from further flagging - even though I'm not going to action the flag.

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