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I think that it must have been discussed in the past in one form or another, and if not here definitely in similar stack.exchange sites.

The question is the following:

Considering that finding duplicates is sometimes more difficult or perhaps to put more precisely more time consuming, shouldn't this action be rewarded with reputation in the same manner that an answer does?

I am not pointing my finger to anyone for not being able to spot duplicates; I am not very good at it. Only today I discovered this very useful link with info on the matter.

I do know of some people who are doing an excellent job in finding them (@Kuba is one that comes to mind, @J. M.'s ennui another one and many more).

Anyway, the point that I am trying to make is that finding duplicates is more time consuming and also as an action is helpful to keep the site at a very good level so not rewarding this action with reputation points seems to be very counter intuitive.

Am I the only one with this point of view?

Is it possible to make such a change?

Edit: There are some excellent comments, and I would like to attempt to address them, as I had not considered them in the first place.

Regarding the comment by @C.E.

The main issue that I have with rewarding a badge, is that badges are pointless. After a certain amount of reputation points, on the other hand, people have the right to vote for closing questions and as the reputation is going higher there are more some might say privileges but I say responsibilities. Again, all these actions are such that the site is maintained at the optimal level.

Middle ground solution (?) perhaps could be with that certain badge a user could have the right to vote to close certain questions.

Regarding the comment by @Kuba.

In my opinion, finding multiple duplicates for a single questions should be awarded as a single action; i.e 10 points and that's it. The logic behind it is that indicating duplicate(s) serves a purpose and one is sufficient. I don't find it more beneficial to find two duplicates for the same question rather than one, but maybe I am being a bit naive about it.

The other issue raised is, I think, more elaborate and puzzling. A solution that comes to mind is the following: if a question is marked as duplicate and closed, in order to re-open it and receive a detailed and thorough answer it should be a bounty question. So anyone who wishes to re-open will have to spend at least 50 points, while initially gaining only 10. Perhaps this is a good way to avoid the pitfall of abusing the new feature of the system.

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    I think that changing the reputation system in this way is unlikely. There are many other things one could reward reputation for if starting down that road. It would fit better with the system, I think, to add a badge for it. However, Stack Exchange currently does not have community specific badges so it’s not enough to convince this community, one has to convince Stack Exchange that this is a good idea in general.
    – C. E.
    May 27, 2021 at 1:56
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    I don't know. Would be nice but would to tough to execute it. What about finding multiple duplicates for a single question, it is possible to add more than one. What if the question gets reopened, what if closed again and again :) How to prevent users from trying to abuse it and marking duplicates where they would hesitate otherwise if there were no reputation involved. Or other unexpected results (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive).
    – Kuba Mod
    May 27, 2021 at 4:56
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    But I am glad people like you still care about it and maybe that small group is enough. I don't know how that works for other sites though.
    – Kuba Mod
    May 27, 2021 at 4:58
  • @C.E. thanks a lot for the feedback. Can you have another look at the question? I tried to address your comment
    – kcr
    May 27, 2021 at 8:17
  • @Kuba thanks a lot for taking time to write your thoughts. I tried to address the points you raised and perhaps you might want to have another look now :)
    – kcr
    May 27, 2021 at 8:17
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    It's true that finding duplicates is (more or less) a thankless task. So in my case, I do it for selfish reasons: I vastly prefer everything relevant to a topic collated on a single "main" post instead of being scattered across a bunch of dupes.
    – J. M.'s persistent exhaustion Mod
    Jun 10, 2021 at 1:53
  • @J.M. that's good motivation. I never really thought about it that way.
    – kcr
    Jun 10, 2021 at 9:24

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