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Look at this question: Does the universe have a center?. (original, unpopular)

Now, look at this one: Did the Big Bang happen at a point?. (duplicate, famous)

If you notice, the duplicate post has a comment by a moderator that redirects to the original post: Duplicate post's comment

Now, the original post has this message with its strange reason to close (that redirects to the duplicate post): Original post's closure message

Looks like a paradox, right?

In summary, we see that the original question is closed, being unpopular, but the duplicate is not. Does this imply we should not mark a duplicate post as a duplicate if the original post is not-so-popular?

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    $\begingroup$ No, you are misunderstanding. The unpopular older question is being closed as duplicate of the popular newer question so that the thread is being consolidated into the popular newer question. The popular newer question is marked as duplicate of the older question but not closed. This way, we see that both questions are duplicates of each other and are intricately linked, and all new discussion goes to the popular question. $\endgroup$
    – naturallyInconsistent
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 3:34
  • $\begingroup$ @naturallyInconsistent, thanks for your valuable response. However, I have a question: Why our new Stack Exchange minds are so obsessed with closing questions that too could grow if given some time (perhaps more than the less-popular questions -- like <10 upvotes)? Don't you think there should be a mentioned rule about this? For example, if the original post has less than 10 upvotes, the dupe question could work as a checkpoint of the same question asked a long ago that has gone inactive. $\endgroup$
    – Rohan Bari
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 11:19
  • $\begingroup$ Duplicates are not found instantly and automatically. Very good answers to a later unrecognized duplicate can in fact drive upvotes to the question itself. This certainly seems to be the case here - the answer is the highly valued part, making this question the canonical one to point to regardless of it being later in time than the other one. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Jul 10, 2023 at 18:42
  • $\begingroup$ For some background, consider this Meta thread. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Commented Jul 11, 2023 at 1:45

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