in reply to Re^3: Accidental duplicate: please delete
in thread Challenge: Optimal Bagels Strategy

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)
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Re^5: Accidental duplicate: please delete
by ambrus (Abbot) on Sep 28, 2009 at 09:02 UTC

    I've often wished that preview left the post to which you are responding displayed above the preview for reference.

    Some forums work like this indeed (though that post is and should be shown below). We should consider making that at least an option here. I don't think that's too important as the preview page at least displays a link to the would-be-parent post for a few years now.

[reply]
      (though that post is and should be shown below)

      Why below? Everwhere else in PM, chronology has later posts lower than earlier ones (barring XP ordering).

      And when you first reply, the parent post is above. Why would you suddenly move it below when you hit preview?

      I hate those reverse chronology forums where you have to skip to the bottom and read backwards. It's...well, backwards.

      I don't think that's too important as the preview page at least displays a link to the would-be-parent post for a few years now.

      It's that link I use for my sanity checks, but it is all too easy to back up too far if you see the need for changes.

      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.
[reply]

        That's so you don't have to scroll down a potentially long post to see your preview and the edit buttons. Note that there'd be only a single parent displayed below, not a whole thread. Very often you don't actually want to look at that parent every time, rather just check out your reply and edit.

[reply]

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