Is insta-closing of potential duplicates always the best way? In low Q-rate sites? Is there something to be said for slow-closing or eventual closing?

Question

Constellation search from April 22 2007 received three good answers before it was correctly closed as duplicate to our canonical Where can I find the positions of the planets, stars, moons, artificial satellites, etc. and visualize them? which was cultivated and cared-for by the late @user21.

Two of the three answers there are not found in the canonical answer (in-the-sky.org, skyandtelescope.org); we might not have found that out had that question been closed earlier, the Sky and Telescope answer was added only 40 minutes before the insta-close.

Closing as duplicate is a very important tool as it directs future readers to answers they should see, I'm just asking about the speed.

The Sky and Telescope answer is the first post from a new answer, the only up vote the've received is mine, and only because I stopped by to check on the question. Had the question been given another day or two before closing, perhaps by letting the community do it, they might have picked up another vote or two.

New users are a low question rate SE site's life blood. They are to be encouraged and nurtured.

To review:

• had closing been only ~40 minutes earlier we would have lost a valuable answer not found in the duplicate
• had closing been a day or two later, a new user may have received some precious first up votes for that new and valuable answer.
• Even if they go and add it to the community wiki of the duplicate, they can't receive up votes, and would be discouraged from posting a separate answer where they could.

Question: Is insta-closing of potential duplicates always the best way? In low Q-rate sites? Is there something to be said for slow-closing or eventual closing?

Answer 1

When closed because of duplicate, a question has a clear link to the original question:

This question already has answers here:

[Link to original question]

So had he came after closure, the 'Sky and Telescope user' would still have been able to post his answer, but under the original question, which is actually better. After all, it is the goal of closing duplicate questions:

The fundamental goal of closing duplicate questions is to help people find the right answer by getting all of those answers in one place.

Once posted there, his answer could have get upvotes forever, and there would be no need for moving the content from one question to the other. So all in all, I don't really the issue of fast-closing, as long as there is a clear link to the question where answers belong.

Answer 2

I am just one member of the community, but in my opinion, closing questions for correct reasons quickly is always desirable even in the rare case that the duplicate linked question has a wiki answer. In my opinion, the risk of discouragement to new users is not a sufficiently good reason to delay closing clear duplicate questions. As @uhoh notes above, the new answers now should to be migrated to the original duped question.

Also, I don't think this question was insta-closed. It was closed about 17 hours after opening. I try to be extra careful as a moderator when closing questions since we can close in a single vote. If the closure is ambiguous, I would prefer the community closes it with 5 votes. In this case it appears that my closure was unilateral, but I hit the wrong button when first closing it, so I reopened and then closed it correctly as a dupe. There were several votes for closure prior to my close vote.