Is my question really a duplicate?

Question

Is there a process in place to dispute a "duplicate" flag?

The accepted answer on the question above indicates that I should take the following steps to appeal a duplicate flag on a question:

• Edit the question such that it's clearer what you're asking. Be specific.
• Raise a question here in meta, explaining to the community why you feel that it's not a duplicate and why it should be reopened.

Earlier today I asked How can I pass gas with professionalism on days when it is a constant occurrence?

Shortly thereafter, the post was flagged a duplicate to this question. How can I manage my need to take short bathroom breaks in a professional setting?

If the questions are truly a duplicate as presently voted, I should logically conclude that the only way to professionally pass gas in the office is to do so in the restroom. Furthermore, no number of trips to the bathroom to pass gas is too many.

If that turns out to be the answer, I will be glad to have gained the insight. However, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity for the community to weigh in with votes on well worded answers to my question.

I searched for other questions related to the topic of flatulence in the workplace, and everything to date has discussed the problem from the observer's perspective. To date there has been no meaningful discussion on the topic from the perspective of the flatulent professional.

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I could make a number of arguments for particular reasons why the two questions are not duplicates, but I honestly feel a little silly doing so. I feel like adding these "clarifications" to my question as requested would make my question worse, not better.

• Someone might counsel me to go outside to pass gas, but the asker of the other question is not likely to be told to go outside to urinate.

• Someone might opine that there is nothing wrong with passing gas in my office if the door is closed and the window is open (currently the only answer,) but no one is likely to suggest that the other asker urinate in her office with the door closed.

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I understand in reading the meta question referenced above, that duplicate flags are largely a function of community vote. I would like to kindly request that the community reconsider its vote and reopen my question.

Answer 1

To answer your question, NO, your question is not a duplicate.

Rampant closing of questions because they're supposedly dupes is an issue on all the stackexchange sites and it is especially acute for subject matter that is subjective or edgy. That is not to say that stackexchange sites such as Workplace aren't incredibly valuable resources, it is just a defect and there's no workaround without changing the way things work in these communities (for the record I do accept things the way they are now).

The problem is that you have a small number of people that honestly feel they're providing a service by shutting down questions that don't meet their highly personal and rigid interpretation of the rules. For some, the very idea that there's "rules" means it goes without saying that any interpretation is necessarily rigid. Yes, even to the point of absurdity. In this case, some folks saw a parallel between yours and another question and it triggered a "mark-as-dupe" response. I've seen far worse examples which cross the line into comical rather than merely wrong as this closing was.

In a gameified environment, such rules-oriented folks are going to exert a greater influence than people who don't care so much about scores and rules. Valid questions will be closed far faster than they will be re-opened.

The solution is to not get bent out of shape because of it. Don't take it personally. Yes, your question was closed, but now there are already 2 re-open votes. In the meantime, people will still comment.