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Somebody commented on my question that it is a possible duplicate of another question. I replied and clarified that the other question is about Android, is mostly about the JTDs driver (which I did not use, at least I think so), and so my question is in no way a duplicate of that question.

There are questions with similar titles, but they are somehow different (I had checked them and tried their answers before asking). Moreover, my question is about my program as I am not getting the expected output.

Now my question is closed with a banner displayed at the top of my question, which may be one reason I am not getting any answers:

    This question already has answers here

What can I do about it?

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First, there are two aspects of the duplicate process that you need to be aware of as your question here suggests that you might not be.

1. The question is actually not closed yet

  • A comment was added under the question
    When someone flags or votes to close your question as a duplicate of another question, a Does this answer your question? .... comment is automatically added to the question. Now, it is possible to add this comment manually, but 99% of the time you see this, it means at least 1 person has voted to close or flagged your question.

  • A post notice header was added above the question
    When your question gets at least 1 vote or flag as a duplicate, the This question may already have an answer here header is added to your question. This is only visible to you at this point in time. It won't be visible to anyone else until your question is actually closed as a duplicate (which requires 3 votes, or a single vote to close by someone with a gold badge in one of the tags).

So once you explained to the user that the question is not a duplicate, there is no telltale sign to most users that anyone even voted or flagged that question.

For your question, I don't see any close votes, so it must have been a flag, or the user voted to close initially and they retracted their vote, although the close details suggest a flag.

So basically you handled it properly. Someone suggested it was a duplicate, you explained why it isn't a duplicate, and they deleted the automatic comment. It is advisable to make the comment stand on its own though. I suspect this is your comment explaining why it isn't a duplicate, however without the context of the original "possible duplicate" comment, it doesn't make sense. You might want to proactively say that the suggested possible duplicate is not a duplicate, and explain why. This will help close voters understand why it isn't a duplicate and hopefully persuade them not to close it.

2. The question is already closed as duplicate

But if your question is actually closed as a duplicate (either by 3 votes, or a single vote by a holder), the guidance in Someone flagged my question as already answered, but it's not is the best advice you can get.

If it isn't actually a duplicate, you have to assume that someone misread or misunderstood your question. Don't assume malice or laziness.

  1. Clarify your question
    Is there something missing or explained poorly that caused someone to think it was a duplicate when it wasn't?

  2. Provide a MCVE
    Is your minimal, complete and verifiable example (mcve) unclear? Consider providing a different (or additional) example to better illustrate your problem.

  3. Explain why the question isn't a duplicate
    It is possible the question is similar and a good explanation and help clarify the problem. It is also possible you tried that solution and it didn't work. If so, then explain what you tried and why it didn't work.

  4. Mark correctly to enter the review queue

    Checked checkbox labeled "This edit resolves the original close reason and the question should be considered for reopening.", under "Submit for review"

When trying to clarify or explain, do not do this in the comments, but edit the question. And please don't stuff "EDIT" at the bottom or top of the post. Just rewrite your question to clarify and make the whole post as cohesive and well-written as possible. "EDIT" markers all over the place just clutter up the post and make it harder to understand.

Your edits should try to explain in some level of detail why the post isn't a duplicate. Just stating "this isn't a duplicate" or editing the title to say it isn't a duplicate are generally not good choices. For maximum impact, try to keep your edits focused on the problem, and not extraneous information. The more fluff or meta-commentary you add, the more likely you are going to distract from your intent, which will not help get your post reopened (often it will backfire on you).

And you don't have to wait for your post to be closed to try to explain why. You should actually try to pre-emptively fix your post when you get the first vote (or flag) as it is easier to keep a question open than it is to wait for it to get closed and then try to get it reopened.

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    I'm sorry, but I'm still confused. Clarify your question and explain that why it's not a duplicate where? How? Do you mean to edit the question to clarify? The only thing that vaguely resembles instructions on this says to post a new question.
    – Jay
    Commented Sep 8, 2021 at 21:15
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    Body of the answer.... "When trying to clarify or explain, do not do this in the comments, but edit the question ....."
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 0:27
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    This is where I'm confused. In the closed header, it says, quote, "Your post has been associated with a similar question. If this question doesn't resolve your question, ask a new one." But here you are saying not to ask a new question, but to edit the existing question. Is the message in the closed header wrong? Are there two different ways to do it? Or what?
    – Jay
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 17:07
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    @Jay regarding the message on the duplicate banner, yeah, that's an unfortunate, misleading change.
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 17:40
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If your Stack Overflow (SO) question is already closed, and you've sufficiently edited and/or explained why this is incorrect, and it cannot get enough reopen votes before they expire, there are a few other things you can do.

  • Ping the closer. If there was a single user who closed the question (e.g. a user with a gold tag badge or moderator) then you can @<username> them in comments. Their name won't autocomplete unless they also commented, but the @<username> will notify them. Note that the list of closers can only be found in the question timeline if you do not have sufficient reputation to vote to close questions directly.

  • Ask in chat for people to review your question, if there is a (language) tag-specific room you can ask in. Similar to making a Meta Stack Overflow post discussed below, this is better approached from the point of view of asking people for suggestions on how to improve your question.

  • Create a question on Meta Stack Overflow (MSO, i.e. this site you're on) with the tags , , and . As a last resort, you can attract more attention to your Stack Overflow question with a question on MSO. It is very likely both your MSO question and your SO question will be downvoted, and the MSO post (some would say ironically) closed as a duplicate of this one. How such an MSO question is received is largely dependent on the tone you use in your MSO question.

    If you do create a question on Meta Stack Overflow, you are much better off asking what you can do to improve your SO question, so it can be in shape to be reopened, rather than approaching your MSO question from the assumption that your SO question is already perfect and ready to be reopened. Asking what can be improved generally tends to result in people providing helpful suggestions, or even improving your question by editing. Approaching the MSO from the point of view that your Stack Overflow question currently deserves to be reopened and/or that the close-voters (and/or down-voters) didn't know what they were doing, didn't know what they were reading, or were being mean by just close-voting or down-voting rarely turns out well.

  • Give up. If you cannot get it reopened, then consensus is that it shouldn't be. Regardless of how you feel you should probably stop worrying about it.

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    Note: if there's more than one user who voted to close, then none of the close-voters are eligible to receive pings from comments (unless they have otherwise made an action which causes them to be eligible; e.g. have a non-deleted comment on the question, edited the question, etc.). The "final" close-voter is not pingable as a result of their close-vote, regardless of if they have a gold tag badge. If there was one, and only one, close-voter who successfully closed the question by their sole action, then that user is eligible to be pinged from comments.
    – Makyen Mod
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 18:19
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    I don't know if anyone on this thread is in a position to do anything about it, but: None of what has been said here is explained or even remotely implied by the text in the close banner. When a user has his question closed as a duplicate and the "alleged" duplicate does not, in fact, answer his question, he is given no clear instructions on what to do next. Indeed, he is not even given a solid clue. Why can't the banner say, "Edit your question within 3 days to explain how it is different and it will be queued for re-examination" or whatever.
    – Jay
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 3:20
  • @Makyen why is it so inconsistent?
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 9:47
  • @OrangeDog It is fairly consistent. A user is eligible to be pinged if they acted unilaterally on the post (made an edit, posted a bounty, was the only person to close, etc.). If the person was just one of a group of people who all participated in the same action, then they are not made pingable by that action.
    – Makyen Mod
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 10:35
  • @Jay the best answer to that question is the link that Andrew T gave you under the other answer: meta.stackoverflow.com/q/400960/2821954. Suffice it to say, the community and the corporation apparently disagree on the best approach. And since the community does the moderation, it is usually what wins out. More reading on Meta.SE: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/349951/…
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 17:28

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