"They have a clear purpose: they want the site to be useful"
Hmmm, you might want to re-think that one. I can't see how 200,000 questions(and answers) about how to do a for-loop in python(or insert here your fav language) is considered useful.
Don't try to sell me the "report as duplicate" functionality. It is rarely(compared to the content) used. And the reason is simple, look at the people who answer these questions! Some have a reputation in the hundred thousands. Rep farming at work!
SO is a great tool, but I think it's prime time is well behind us. Right now it has become a substitute for Google, by Javascript(mostly) kiddies, that somehow can't find the time to google their trivial questions - let alone read the documentation.
IMO unless they begin to "punish" such behavior, the quality of SO will continue to decline and people like me will begin to distance themselves even more, from this excellent(at some point) site.
It is interesting that you think "report as duplicate" is rarely used. It seems to me that it is very often used. In fact, it seems that it is at times used more liberally than it should be on questions that aren't really duplicates.
As I said, rarely relatively to the duplicate content. Liberally? Definitely not! Most people(which is understandable, I guess) don't want to lose the opportunity to gain some more rep, even if they know that the question has been already answered a thousand times. I am most active in the `python` tag. At least there, I could list way too many examples.
Oftentimes where I've seen duplicated content marked, the question suggested doesn't adequately or fully answer the new question, which may have an advanced or updated (or just different but valuable) slant.
Keeping only the first iteration of a question is seriously detrimental to SE.
I agree completely with what you say. Unfortunately you're talking about something completely different.
I'm not talking about all the instances of posts that get marked as duplicate, neither about those that are marked as duplicate when they shouldn't.
I am talking about those that should be marked, because for all intents and purposes are identical to a thousand other answers, but unfortunately they don't get treated as such.
The reason? Reputation farming plain and simple. It's not even something that's controversial. It's happening all the time and many people like me, voice their opinions, instead of seeking reputation points. That's all.
Hmmm, you might want to re-think that one. I can't see how 200,000 questions(and answers) about how to do a for-loop in python(or insert here your fav language) is considered useful.
Don't try to sell me the "report as duplicate" functionality. It is rarely(compared to the content) used. And the reason is simple, look at the people who answer these questions! Some have a reputation in the hundred thousands. Rep farming at work!
SO is a great tool, but I think it's prime time is well behind us. Right now it has become a substitute for Google, by Javascript(mostly) kiddies, that somehow can't find the time to google their trivial questions - let alone read the documentation.
IMO unless they begin to "punish" such behavior, the quality of SO will continue to decline and people like me will begin to distance themselves even more, from this excellent(at some point) site.
EDIT: typo