Reposting a "generalised" version of the same question

Question

I posted this question on WSE a while back, which was more or less well-received. But it is about a very specific issue that I faced personally and I felt that the issue is a common one at heart and one that possibly other people could relate to.

So I decided to repost it as a separate question, with quite a bit of editing/rephrasing to make its connection with the other question less obvious. It was meant to be a more general version of the same question. It still dealt with the same core problem, but without all the additional details about my own specific situation. On the other hand, the other question is more focused on my problem personally and has more backstory/details.

But quite a few people didn't get my intention and mistook it as a case of classic plagiarism. Then what: it was closed down as a duplicate. But I had only been acting in good faith. The reason I reworded and reposted the question with a broader scope was so that it could help other people. It did look too much of a copy-paste at first, as Liquid helpfully pointed out in the comments. But that has been taken care of since. If you look at the edit history of both the questions, you can see that both the questions have been tweaked and tuned meticulously over the days.

But that hasn't helped much. Currently it stands with only 3 reopen votes.

On a more general note, is posting a more "generalised" version of your own question acceptable, specifically on WSE?

Answer 1

I agree that the questions are different, and if we don't already have a general question on this topic I think adding one is valuable.

I didn't vote to close, but I suspect part of the problem is that you used the drinking example again and people remembered your earlier question. Also, your explanation of why this question is different is in a comment (and now on meta) rather than in the question itself. I suggest you edit to make two changes:

• Use a different example. (And also, including a real excerpt from your writing rather than a "this is ridiculous and I don't write like that" example would be better.)

• Link to the other question and explain that while that is one specific case, you are looking for a general solution.

Answer 2

I agree, and I will vote to reopen AGAIN. The new question is not a duplicate. Perhaps it can be edited so the example is something ELSE you don't have experience with, Soha. Business, the military, college life. Then it cannot possibly be a duplicate of the intoxication question.

edit: I have to wait 9 days to vote to reopen again.

edit2: Or re-ask the question with a different example. The fact that this one is closed means it cannot be cited as a duplicate, and the new question will not reference intoxication, so that won't be a duplicate either.