<p>My question is related to this <a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1122/how-to-stem-the-tide-of-duplicate-qs/1123#1123">post</a> about duplicate questions and I hope it does not seem trivial: </p>

<p>When can I be sure that a question is in fact a duplicate?</p>

<p>I was wondering about this when I flagged a question about p-values (in an application to an output table) for which the same content was dealt with in a more general previous question about p-values. To me it seemed that the "new" question was only new because of this table, so now I am a bit puzzled as to when a question can actually be seen as a duplicate.</p>

<p>Perhaps a function for moderators to comment on why a flag was declined would be useful, too. In this way they could help users to improve their flags which ultimately also helps their work.</p>
