Is it acceptable, or to code, to splice electrical wire outside of a junction box behind drywall?
is closed as duplicate of
Is there a way to simply splice in an additional length of 12/2 NM-B cable?
The closure is not incorrect.
However, I think the newer question is better and more searchable than the original.
What should we do in cases like this?
According to Meta.StackOverflow...
Ideally, close the original as the duplicate of the new one.
In this case flag one of the questions for moderator attention explaining why you think the closing was the wrong way round and they should be able to sort it out.
Most of the time double posts by the same user are caused by back-button edits, so the newer question is the one the OP really wants to stay. Even if the questions come hours or days apart, I'll usually elect to keep the newer one, since it will typically have more/better content.
In the case of duplicates by different users, I do take the dates into account. The older question usually takes precedence, if all other things are equal. The quality of the newer question can definitely sway my decision though.
Just merge them.
If the new question is a better question or has better answers, then vote to close the old one as a duplicate of the new one.
You can flag and ask a moderator to merge after closure if they're exactly the same.
If they differ based on the versions of the relevant systems, then they're not really exact duplicates - make sure this is indicated in the questions themselves, and provide cross-links so folks looking for one but finding the other have a path to the correct answers.
I would suggest editing the original question if it just needs a better title. The only time I can think of where a reversed closure makes sense (closing the older question as a dup) is if the newer question is more generic and covers several questions that may be too localized.
I would just let both of them be. Why bother. Seems like busy work for a moderator with no great benefit to users. But that just my opinion.
