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There have been numerous questions put on hold as showing "insufficient effort", generally in cases where the question has a simple, easily-found-out answer. But there are also a lot of questions that are marked as "duplicate" of other questions on Physics SE. Out of curiosity, can (note: not a request) duplicate questions be closed as showing "insufficient effort", especially if the question(s) they duplicate come up easily on a site search? That is, if one can easily answer the question by browsing through the site, does that question show "insufficient effort"?

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    $\begingroup$ Relevant meta post: meta.physics.stackexchange.com/q/6001/50583 $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Sep 28, 2014 at 1:53
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    $\begingroup$ @ACuriousMind How ironic. And embarrassing. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Sep 28, 2014 at 1:56
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    $\begingroup$ "Insufficient effort" isn't one of our close reasons, so I can't imagine there are many questions put on hold with that as the stated reason. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Sep 28, 2014 at 3:37
  • $\begingroup$ @DavidZ I think he's referring to part of our "homework" close reason. $\endgroup$
    – Danu
    Sep 28, 2014 at 6:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Danu Yes, I was focusing specifically on that. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Sep 28, 2014 at 12:21
  • $\begingroup$ That said, this (meta.physics.stackexchange.com/q/5778) covers an interesting discussion, linked by a comment from John Rennie from physics.stackexchange.com/q/137638. $\endgroup$
    – HDE 226868
    Sep 28, 2014 at 12:59
  • $\begingroup$ Ah @Danu and HDE, gotcha. As I see it, the requirement to show effort in the homework policy is somewhat more relaxed than the criterion one might use to downvote a question for showing insufficient effort. Marking as a duplicate is intended more as a helpful pointer to the OP rather than an indication that they should have done more research in the first place. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Sep 28, 2014 at 17:52

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I would argue that, yes a duplicate question would count as insufficient prior research. There is a search engine built into this site for a few reasons, one of which is to prevent duplicates. This site is also indexed favorably by Google (don't use others, so I cannot point to their efficacy), so searching that would should also bring searchers to this site.

However, I would also argue that it is irrelevant at that point because the question ought to be closed as a duplicate and not due to the homework aspect of "insufficient evidence."

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    $\begingroup$ Agreed. A general principle I go by is that when multiple close reasons apply, I use the one that provides the most useful information to the poster (and if there's a tie, the most specific close reason). By that metric, duplicate trumps all others. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Sep 28, 2014 at 17:50
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    $\begingroup$ Plus, I would say (if an insufficient effort reason did exist) that it's "duplicate" when the answer can be found on our site, and "insufficient effort" when it can be found trivially on some other site. $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Sep 28, 2014 at 18:09
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    $\begingroup$ Would the downvoter care to explain what they disagree with here? Or even better, post your own response to see how the community responds to your opinion? $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Sep 28, 2014 at 19:19
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    $\begingroup$ If you close a question as a duplicate the link to the duplicate is shown at the top of the question. If you close as insufficient effort there won't be a link to a duplicate unless someone has put one in the comments. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Sep 30, 2014 at 6:16

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