<p><strong>It is not uncommon to encounter a new question that is technically a duplicate of an older question, which however is for some reason unsatisfactory.</strong></p>

<p>Maybe there are no answers at all; maybe there are some answers but they are all not good; maybe there is a decent answer there but the accepted answer is bad and OP left the forum so this will never change; maybe a correct answer is only in the comments; maybe the question itself is badly formulated, e.g. too detailed or too cumbersome.</p>

<p><strong>All such cases should be considered individually, but one general rule is that one should not feel compelled to respect the older thread just because it is older.</strong></p>

<p>Sometimes you may want to post a new answer in the old thread and close the new one as a duplicate. Sometimes you may want to post an answer in the new thread and close <em>the old one</em> as a duplicate of the new one. This should be decided based on what question is better formulated and/or has more chances to be more prominently seen. Sometimes you may want to ask and answer your own exemplary question and then to close both the new and the old questions as duplicates of your own one. Etc.</p>

<p>In this particular case two good answers have by now been posted in the new question and one of them  is accepted; the question itself received several upvotes. Very well - so perhaps it would now make sense to close both older questions as duplicates. You can vote to close the oldest one. Once it gets closed you can flag the one that is already closed for moderator attention and explain there that it would be better to change the duplication target (to prevent "a duplicate of a duplicate" situation).</p>
