I agree that sometimes it was really a dupe. Or even that most of the time it's a dupe. But when the answer was written in 2011 with the latest update in 2017, maybe it's worth reopening the question because there's probably a better answer in the last 6 years.
> But when the answer was written in 2011 with the latest update in 2017, maybe it's worth reopening the question because there's probably a better answer in the last 6 years.
Even in that case, you don't need a new question. You should instead just edit and/or post a new answer to the old question.
Why? Why not just answer the damn question and link it in the old question if you're the mod? There's now countless ways to center a div in 2023. It's unreasonable to link to a 15 year old post. I guess SO will find out the hard way that people like updated answers on updated pages.
How would that work? If I just comment on some 8 year old question that the answer does not apply to $LATEST version of $FRAMEWORK, how would anyone with the know-how discover my question?
This truly is a new question because what is really being asked is what was the breaking change that occurred in $FRAMEWORK between the original question was answered and this latest version.
That doesn't help if you're a person trying to get an answer rather than a person trying to provide one.
Though SO has made some small progress on this problem recently by changing the default sorting algorithm to no longer prefer old, entrenched answers over new, better ones.
How does that work for a question asker? Can I revive an old question that I want a modern answer to?
As far as I know the original asker owns the question, so I, modern asker, can't edit it asking for a modern answer or de-select the selected answer for being now wrong or out of date.
That doesn't satisfy the use case. How do you edit a question that isn't yours? If you are looking for an answer and don't have one, how do you trigger the question to be re-answered? How does the new answerer get the points?
I agree that sometimes it was really a dupe. Or even that most of the time it's a dupe. But when the answer was written in 2011 with the latest update in 2017, maybe it's worth reopening the question because there's probably a better answer in the last 6 years.