It would be pretty hard to guarentee. You'd effectively have to compare the text of every new post against the text of every existing post, which would be very expensive. And would miss if there were minor differences (corrected typos or formatting) anyway.

In this case the cause--and probably the most frequent reason for my dups--is that I submitted the post, then viewed the parent node to make sure that mine made sense in its context and noticed something that needed correcting. So I backed up through my browser cache and made the correction, but accidentally backed up too far--to the preview stage. Hence when hitting submit, I created a duplicate rather than replacing.

I've often wished that preview left the post to which you are responding displayed above the preview for reference. That would probably prevent 90%+ of my accidental dups.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP PCW It is as I've been saying!(Audio until 20090817)

In reply to Re^4: Accidental duplicate: please delete by BrowserUk
in thread Challenge: Optimal Bagels Strategy by Limbic~Region

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