how to handle exact duplicates on seqanswers/stackoverflow, etc.

[Casey Bergman]

Dear BioStars -

What is the group's philosophy on how to handle questions that are
exact duplicates of posts on other forums like seqanswers or
stackoverflow? I'm not sure this can ever be prevented (or if it
should for that matter), but I'm wondering if we should close these
questions if the answer has been resolved elsewhere?

For example, there is a recent BioStar question that was posted in two
other places, which was answered by Nils Homer at seqanswers (and
luckily cross-linked by him as well): http://biostar.stackexchange.com/questions/7057/why-is-samtools-colorspace-calmd-incredibly-slow

Best,
Casey

Casey Bergman, Ph.D.
Faculty of Life Sciences
University of Manchester
Michael Smith Building
Oxford Road, M13 9PT
Manchester, UK

Tel: +44-(0)161-275-1713
Lab: +44-(0)161-275-5980
Fax: +44-(0)161-275-5082
skype: caseymbergman

Email: casey....@manchester.ac.uk

[Istvan Albert]

On Sat, Apr 2, 2011 at 4:38 PM, Casey Bergman <caseyb...@gmail.com> wrote:

> What is the group's philosophy on how to handle questions that are exact
> duplicates of posts on other forums like seqanswers or stackoverflow? I'm
> not sure this can ever be prevented (or if it should for that matter), but
> I'm wondering if we should close these questions if the answer has been
> resolved elsewhere?

One approach could be to refer to the original source but perhaps also
quote the answer if appropriate.

Another option could be outright deletion, though that is maybe too
harsh of an action that usually is reserved to inappropriate content.

Plus often we don't know when someone double/triple posted and may
only become aware later when some possibly useful answers have been
posted.

--
Istvan Albert
Associate Professor, Bioinformatics
Pennsylvania State University
http://www.personal.psu.edu/iua1/

[David Quigley]

If the question is on-topic and well-phrased, I would not want it to
be deleted. I think Biostar should have the answers to as many good
questions as we can get people to ask, even if the answer is a link to
another resource. Some of these questions are of the form, "I'm trying
to compile the foo package and it asks for some obscure library, what
does this mean?" which are a better fit for that package's listserv
than Biostar, but not all packages have active developer/user
ecosystems that can help with those questions.

On Apr 2, 1:38 pm, Casey Bergman <caseyberg...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear BioStars -
>
> What is the group's philosophy on how to handle questions that are  
> exact duplicates of posts on other forums like seqanswers or  
> stackoverflow? I'm not sure this can ever be prevented (or if it  
> should for that matter), but I'm wondering if we should close these  
> questions if the answer has been resolved elsewhere?
>
> For example, there is a recent BioStar question that was posted in two  
> other places, which was answered by Nils Homer at seqanswers (and  

> luckily cross-linked by him as well):http://biostar.stackexchange.com/questions/7057/why-is-samtools-color...

>
> Best,
> Casey
>
> Casey Bergman, Ph.D.
> Faculty of Life Sciences
> University of Manchester
> Michael Smith Building
> Oxford Road, M13 9PT
> Manchester, UK
>
> Tel: +44-(0)161-275-1713
> Lab: +44-(0)161-275-5980
> Fax: +44-(0)161-275-5082
> skype: caseymbergman
>

> Email: casey.berg...@manchester.ac.uk

[neilfws]

In general, I don't mind cross-posting. I usually add a comment to such questions with the external link, just to point out that it has been posted elsewhere.

There can be problems when people post in multiple places and never seem to check back (at any of them), but it's fairly easy to identify, chastise and "black mark" these individuals :-)