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Yesterday I flagged this question with "in need of a moderator intervention" because it was the third time the author asked the very same question.

The moderator handling my flag answered: "They should edit their post. You can vote or flag such posts as duplicates of the original post". However, as far as I know, casting a closing vote or raising a flag for a duplicate can only be done with a post that already has an answer. Did I miss something? Is it possible with a post without answer?

Since the same problem happened again (but this time not by the same author) between this post and this one, I would like to know the right process.

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Oops. Sorry about that. I don't think you missed anything. You're right -- I don't believe you can mark it as a duplicate of a question with no answers. I think flagging was the right thing to do -- I think you are following the right process. Moderators can close as duplicate but you can't, and it's easy to forget that.

I apologize about the rejected flag and about the faulty feedback. I would guess that it was likely an oversight.

(By the way, those two linked questions aren't duplicates: the first restricts to paths that go "through $w$", the second doesn't. That makes the second much easier.)

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  • $\begingroup$ My bad for the two linked questions. Also no problem for the flag! It wasn't even rejected (and even if it was, I mean, it's just a flag). Thanks for the answer. $\endgroup$
    – Nathaniel
    Commented Nov 29, 2021 at 6:02
  • $\begingroup$ @Nathaniel Oh, I didn't even know closing as a duplicate of a questions without answers is a moderator exclusive operation! Thanks for pointing this out. So indeed, I agree that making a moderator flag is the right approach for this situation. $\endgroup$
    – Discrete lizard Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2021 at 8:44

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