Sometimes a question is clarified ( rarely ) after a duplicate closure, and the clarification is still a duplicate just of a different question.

A more common case is sometimes you copy paste the wrong URL or find better duplicate afterwards or someone that can't vote to close points out a better target when closing as a duplicate and need to change the target.

Right now, if you remove the duplicate closure you lose your ability to vote to close on the question again for the new ( or better ) duplicate target.

At some kind of least grace period like on editing comments would even be acceptable, because people are pretty quick to complain about duplicate closures.

We need a way change the duplicate target question without reopening the question to answers.

  • For every close voter or limited to Dupe hammers? – rene Jul 19 '16 at 14:53
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    Why does it matter? – user177800 Jul 19 '16 at 14:53
  • I don't fancy 5 close voters all change their dupe vote. That is likely not going to happen. But in the limited area with trusted users I see no problem giving you that option. So your FR can be implemented then in steps. – rene Jul 19 '16 at 14:55
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    Whilst I can see its appeal to recent/active questions. I wonder if it would get abused by users that would want to change dupe targets of older questions to questions they have asked or have an accepted answer to. – Sayse Jul 19 '16 at 15:06
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    so put a TTL on it just like editing comments, and anyone can change a dupe target of something they have not voted to close to something else now, that is not a problem today. everything can be abused. I can reopen any java question with a single click and dupe hammer it to whatever I want if it is the first time now. This is about changing the target after it has already been voted on. – user177800 Jul 19 '16 at 15:28
  • Since the question was edited, it's in the review queue. Does retargeting it cancel the review? – davidism Jul 19 '16 at 15:28
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    On the rare occasion that this happens to me, I just take it to the relevant chat room and ask if someone's willing to re-hammer. They usually are. – davidism Jul 19 '16 at 15:31
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    @sayse I don't expect it to be abused but you can expect that dupe voters choose a target they know. This query shows the number of questions used as a dupe target where one of the close voters is an OP on the Q/A target. You'll find our most trusted users in that list which show their effort. – rene Jul 19 '16 at 16:28
  • @rene: Wow, that's an interesting query! – Bergi Jul 20 '16 at 3:19

As of today, you can change the duplicate link on a duplicate-closed question - if you have a gold badge for one of the tags on the question.


While nice to have, I don't think it worth implementing.

For majority of cases I think keep closed + link to correct answer is fine.

In rare case when you found perfect signpost question to lead to good duplicate this currently can be solved with current tools: add comment to someone later to re-close, chat to re-close, for active question - re-open and comment is often enough.

As gold-hammer holder I'm happy that my powers are limited so if implemented I'd still like to see some serious restriction on such re-targeting (maybe once per question if edit by OP).

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