Questions with substantially the same meaning should be merged as duplicates. The key for proper question merging is that the intents of the people arriving at both questions are the same. Even if the phrasing or details are slightly different, questions should be merged when you expect all answers to apply to both questions.
Examples of questions that should be merged are simply alternate phrasings of the exact same question. Consider the following questions
- Can I go to Belize from Cancun without taking a flight?
- How can I go to Belize from Cancun without taking a flight?
- Can I go to Belize from Cancun without flying?
They all satisfy the exact same intent and should be merged together.
More generally, questions that begin with
- “How do I do X”
- “How do you do X”
- “How could I do X”
- “How could you do X”
- “Can I do X”
- “Could I do X”
all frequently satisfy the same intent.
Examples that should not be merged:
- Where are the best tourist attractions in Paris? should not be merged into Where's the best view in Paris? because these satisfy different intents. Not all tourist attractions have good views and not all places with good views are tourist attractions.
- How do I prepare for a software engineer interview at Google? should not be merged into How do I prepare for a software engineer interview? because while the first question is asking for specific advice that applies to Google and the answers to the second question may not satisfy that intent.
For example, "Is X the best Y?" should not be merged into one question: "What is the best Y?” because the intent of “Is X the best Y?” is to examine how X is or is not the best Y. People with that intent who end up at “What is the best Y?” may not have their intent satisfied because X may not be addressed in any answer.
It is instructive to examine some similar question that should be merged and should not be merged around weight loss are:
- What is the easiest and most effective way to lose weight? should not be merged into How rapidly can someone safely lose weight? because the intent of easily and effectively losing weight is not the same as rapidly and safely losing weight.
- Are there any foods or supplements that actually reduce the fat so that I can lose weight easily? should not be merged into How rapidly can someone safely lose weight? because the intent of finding out how to lose weight through foods or supplements is not the same as rapidly and safely losing weight.
- How can I lose weight easily? should not be merged into How rapidly can someone safely lose weight? because the intent of losing weight easily is not the same as rapidly and safely losing weight. However, How can I lose weight easily? should be merged into What is the easiest and most effective way to lose weight? because the losing weight easily generally has the same intent as losing weight in the easiest and most effective way, as few people wish to lose weight ineffectively.
- Can you lose weight without exercise? should not be merged into How rapidly can someone safely lose weight? because the intent of losing weight without exercising with no time frame specified is not the same as losing weight rapidly and safely. However, Can I lose weight without exercising? should be merged into Can you lose weight without exercise? because the intents of these two questions are the same.
Selecting the Best Question
When merging questions you should keep the phrasing of the question that is likely to be helpful to as many people as possible. When a question can be phrased in different ways, the best version is the one that is simplest and most commonly asked.
From our analyses, the majority of the time, the best question is the one with the most views, which is why we choose this to be the default.
If possible, questions should never be stated as Survey Questions, this means that a non-Survey Question should never be merged into a Survey Question.
Disputes
Should there be a reasonable dispute about whether to similarly phrased words or phrases are the same, then err on the side of not merging, as it will always be easier to merge later, whereas unmerging later on can be difficult.
Finally, all merges are reviewed to make sure that they satisfy these policies and guidelines.