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I was wondering why one does get reputation for upvotes on a question that has been marked as duplicate. In my understanding it would be fair not to reward somebody who wasn't able to search for his question upfront.

Since any answers on that question will be frozen and reputation for the answer of a duplicate question will be lost, I can't understand why the question itself can get upvotes (and the asker reputation).

Which thoughts are behind that?

Best, Tom

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    $\begingroup$ There are currently >200,000 questions on MSE. Sometimes it is very hard to find duplicates. (This is not to say that it is always the case.) This is made worse by the fact that for a lot of the type of questions where duplicates are rampant, the authors tend not to bother with coming up with a good question title. You can help by editing questions to have better titles! This makes them more easily found/recognized when looking for duplicates. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 12:52
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    $\begingroup$ I'm totally on your side on that topic. But my question is, if a post is already marked as duplicate the asker still gets the reputation from upvotes on that duplicate. That does not seem to be fair, right? $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 12:54
  • $\begingroup$ Well... think of it this way: if it takes the community a bit of time to realise that the question is a duplicate, and that people upvoted the question in the mean time, there's a good argument right there that the duplicate is not that easily found. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 12:57
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    $\begingroup$ If you are asking about why someone would upvote a question that is already marked duplicate... beats me. People sometimes vote for the oddest reasons. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 12:59
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    $\begingroup$ To the best of my knowledge, reputation on answers to duplicate questions is retained. One can even get reputation from votes on answers after the question is closed, as far as I know. So that premise seems to be incorrect. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 13:05
  • $\begingroup$ Ok, if you answer a duplicate question then your answer (and all your reputation on that) will be transfered to a comment (and the reputation will be lost) - even if the question is marked as duplicate after the answer is written. So the member who was kind enough to answer, will loose but the asker, who wasn't able to search, will not loose any reputation. That's the odd about it. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 13:05
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    $\begingroup$ @BISHD: Where have you seen answers to duplicate questions being converted to comments because they were answers to a duplicate question and not for any other reason? Even if questions are merged the answers (and reputation) are retained. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 13:07
  • $\begingroup$ @ArthurFischer Maybe it was another reason but I can't see why, here: math.stackexchange.com/questions/583371/… $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 13:10
  • $\begingroup$ @BIS: There were indeed other reasons for converting that answer into a comment. In particular, that answer was not an answer but only a link pointing out the duplicate-ness of the question. (Note that all of these questions are marked as duplicates and have answers (some positively scored). There are even duplicate questions with 10 answers!) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 28, 2013 at 14:38
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    $\begingroup$ A good question is a good question whether or not it is a duplicate. Most of my upvotes on questions are for showing some reasonable (if not necessarily correct) work, and that has nothing to do with whether the question has been asked before. In such cases I’m happy to upvote and vote to close the question as a duplicate. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 1:19
  • $\begingroup$ @BrianM.Scott Okay, now I understand your motivation, though a lot of other's motivation to upvote an obvious duplicate (with no efforts, etc.) is still odd to me. Thank you! $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 11:44
  • $\begingroup$ On Meta Stack Exchange: Should you gain rep for asking a duplicate question? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 28, 2020 at 5:51

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