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Here's my question:

enter image description here

Seriously, my other question is about verification of a phenomenon and a value (1 solar mass). This question is about theory of possible transfer of energy in gravitational waves back to more familiar forms of energy, or matter.

Why do I have to explain why the answerless, different question is not the answer to my question that has a good answer?

While handing duplicate questions is important, I think doing it recklessly causes undue duress to those really trying to learn how to ask a good question here. Was this duplicate marking though out? Is it justified, or is it more of a "drive-by" in this case?

Here is my linked question - where I'm supposed to find the answer, instead of the good answer here citing Feynman thoughts on the subject.

enter image description here

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Why do I have to explain why the answerless, different question is not the answer to my question that has a good answer?

Well, your question is not currently closed as a duplicate, so you don't have to do anything at this point.

What happened is that one person voted to close your question as a duplicate of the earlier one. This is nothing to get worked up about. Just because one person thinks a question is a duplicate, doesn't mean it is a duplicate. There's a reason it takes five votes to actually prevent new answers on a question; there needs to be a consensus of sorts to cause such direct action.

That being said, one duplicate vote does mean that one person didn't understand what makes your new question different from the earlier one. I'd take that as motivation to edit your new question (or, in this case, the earlier question) to make it more clear how they are different. Again, you don't have to do so, but if you don't, you may be passing up on an opportunity to improve your question.

TL;DR It's just one vote, don't worry about it, and I don't think anything needs to be done about this, but consider using the feedback to improve your question.

P.S. I'm sure somebody is going to object that moderators and gold badge holders can close questions as duplicates unilaterally. That's a bit different because mods are "trained" to be conservative about unilaterally marking duplicates; we're aware that just because we think something is a duplicate doesn't mean it is, and so if it's not an obvious case, we often defer to the community. And gold badge holders are expected to have a really good intuition about what questions are really duplicates, due to their extensive experience in the tag.

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  • $\begingroup$ Each SE site has a unique "crowd" behavior. I think this question is actually a really good physics question. But I have a feeling that big yellow banners have some tendency to attract downvotes, and negative scores, alone and in combination with big banners just might push someone who could have helped me understand the physics decide "nah - I won't read this one". Yes, the better I write the question, the more I can push in the other direction, but still, if there is such a thing as "drive-by" duplicate votes, that can make it harder for me to reach the person with the good answer. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Jun 16, 2016 at 13:01
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    $\begingroup$ I'm skeptical that banners attract downvotes, but that doesn't really matter; in any case, you do realize nobody else sees the banner you show in the screenshot, right? $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Jun 16, 2016 at 13:08
  • $\begingroup$ No! I definitely don't (er - didn't) realize that! Wow! Are there any keys or clues or markings on banners that differentiate which ones only I can see and which ones everyone can see? Ha! Even asking that question has a bit of creepiness to it! Wow, there are visible banners and invisible banners. I never would have expected that from SE. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Jun 16, 2016 at 13:16
  • $\begingroup$ The fact that it includes a button which only makes sense for you, the question author, to click is a big clue. Other than that, I don't know of a list, though the only public banners I can think of at the moment are those to indicate that a question is closed. I'd say look around the site and see what kinds of banners you notice, and if you ever see one that's not familiar, you can ask here on meta whether it's public or not. $\endgroup$
    – David Z
    Jun 16, 2016 at 19:44

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