How to handle duplicate questions with different answers?

Question

Here is the problem: sometimes there are duplicate questions that have different correct answers, depending on the respective app's version.

Here is an example:

• old question: How can I disable Facebook chat?
• new question: How can I log out of Facebook chat?

The old question's answer was correct at the respective moment, but no longer applies, while the new one's refers to the latest version of the app.

Should the new question be closed as an exact duplicate? How should this situations be handled?

Answer 1

I think there could be two different approaches to this.

1. Merge the old question in to the new question. Add a banner/message to the answer that was posted on the old question indicating that the answer was valid at the time but has now been replaced due to a newer version of the Web Application

2. Close the old question as an exact duplicate of the new question.

In my opinion option 2 would be much more preferable.

I won't do anything just yet until the other moderators have commented on this issue.

EDIT:

I have closed the old question as a duplicate of the new question. This should be done for any other questions that fall in to this category.

Answer 2

The old question's answer is correct but no longer applies

Do you mean, "was correct" then? Or is there still an old version of Facebook around, where the old answer is still valid or useful? Because if not... Well, there's hardly any good reason to preserve the older answer then.

In cases where multiple answers to the same question can be valid for different users, there are simple ways to reflect this on the site:

• Have multiple answers, each describing a solution for a specific scenario.
• Have a single answer that describes multiple solutions, noting where each is applicable.

When starting with two separate questions, the first is easier to achieve: simply flag for moderator attention and suggest a merge. This will result in both answers being attached to one question.

Alternately, you can edit both questions to reflect the unique, specific circumstances in which their answers are valid. However, I suspect this would be wholely inappropriate for this specific instance, as "How could I have disabled Facebook's Chat back in July of '10?" is not a tremendously useful question.

Answer 3

I'd just merge the old question in to the new one. That way, all the answers get transferred, the old question remains & so does the new one.

Out of date answers can be deleted if not required.