> Question can be marked as duplicate without an answer.

No, they literally cannot. The only valid targets for closure are existing questions that have an upvoted or accepted answer. The system will not permit the closure (or vote to close) otherwise.

If you mean "without writing a direct answer to the new question first", that is the exact point of the system. Literally all you have to do is click the link and read the existing answers.

> it feels insulting because the other is asked in such a weird way, that no-one will find the old when they search for the new

Sure. But someone else knew about the old question, found it for you, and directly pointed you at it so that you could get an answer immediately. And did all of this for free.

And, by doing this, now everyone else who thinks of your phrasing for the question, will be immediately able to find the old question, without even having to wait for someone to recognize the duplicate.

I’m sure I’ve had the experience of being told it’s a duplicate, without resolving my problem.

In any case, you may be right, and yet if you search this thread for “horrible” and “obnoxious”, you’ll find dozens of occurrence. Maybe defining the rules of engagement so that the user is wrong every time doesn’t work.

>> Question can be marked as duplicate without an answer.

> No, they literally cannot.

You missed that people repeatedly closed question as duplicate when it was not a duplicate.

So it had answer, just to a different mildly related question.

LLM are having problems but they gaslight me in say 3% of cases, not 60% of cases like SO mods.

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