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I've seen some questions, that have a correct (and sometimes accepted) answer, being answered again with a very similar answer, sometimes just a rephrasing the answer.

What are we supposed to do? There is no flag for plagiarism.

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Flag the answers and a Mod will get to it.

I've seen plagiarism on every Stack I've been on, and usually the voters move the better answer up the ladder. Sometimes the second answer gives more information or reason for the answer, so it's not always a bad thing. If it's obvious and obnoxiously done, it'll be deleted. If it adds to the answer, it will be allowed to stay.

The object here is to give the best and most complete answers to the questions, and sometimes that means adding a new answer which is almost identical but covers more of the topic.

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  • There is no flag for plagiarism, should we flag with I need a moderator intervention?
    – Bebs
    Jun 1, 2017 at 6:46
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    If you choose the "In need of Moderator intervention" option, you have the ability to write a short reason why. You can simply write "Plagiarism:" and then something like, "Billy clearly stole this from Bobby". If it warrants a deletion (i.e. hasn't added anything new to the answer already given but covers all the same ground in similar depth), we'll do it.
    – Johnny Bones Mod
    Jun 1, 2017 at 12:04
  • If it makes you feel better, look at this question on the Movies & TV stack where I clearly gave the same answer and the timestamp indicates it was given 6 minutes prior to the "accepted" answer (which was more or less the same as mine). It happens, we move on.
    – Johnny Bones Mod
    Jun 1, 2017 at 19:39

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