> The high-traffic tags are full of low-quality or frequently asked questions. The amount of duplication in e.g. the C++ tag is staggering, but there doesn't seem to be a conscious effort to enforce a no-duplicate policy of any kind.
This is a tough one. There already is a system for dealing with duplicates, which is to vote to close as a duplicate, but requires 5 people to so vote before it will actually be closed. You could reduce that number, but there would probably be concern about abuse and mistakes if you reduced that too far. The thing is, it's fairly labor intensive to actually find duplicate questions, and ensure that they really are duplicates. In many cases, it's just easier to answer the new question, than to dig out the duplicate, vote to close, and then, if you actually want to be helpful, explain in a comment why the question is a duplicate (since beginners might not understand how the other question answers theirs).
This is a tough one. There already is a system for dealing with duplicates, which is to vote to close as a duplicate, but requires 5 people to so vote before it will actually be closed. You could reduce that number, but there would probably be concern about abuse and mistakes if you reduced that too far. The thing is, it's fairly labor intensive to actually find duplicate questions, and ensure that they really are duplicates. In many cases, it's just easier to answer the new question, than to dig out the duplicate, vote to close, and then, if you actually want to be helpful, explain in a comment why the question is a duplicate (since beginners might not understand how the other question answers theirs).