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What are Duplicate Claims?
Duplicate claims are two (or more) claims in a discussion which argue for the same point, fulfilling the same “argumentative purpose” as each other. Having bits and pieces of the same argument around a discussion quickly leads to confusion, making it harder for users to effectively navigate around the discussion and understand how arguments relate to each other.
As a single claim can be “linked” in multiple locations in a discussion, such duplicates are unnecessary. See Moving/Linking a Claim for information on how to link a claim.
How to Avoid Duplicate Claims
To help you avoid creating duplicate claims, Kialo will show you the claims most similar to the claim you are currently writing/editing as you type in the “Possible duplicate claims” list under the editing field. If you click on the left-hand side of a possible duplicate claim in this list, it will be copied to your clipboard, allowing you to link or move it to the current location. If you click on the right-hand side of a possible duplicate claim, you will open that possible duplicate in a new tab for you to explore it further.
You should pay attention to this list while composing your claim, ensuring that your claim does not argue for the same thing as an already existing claim does. If it does, you should link the existing claim in the current location rather than creating a new one.
While the “Possible duplicate claims” list picks up on the most likely duplicate claims that may exist in a discussion, it is not exhaustive. It is important to look around a discussion yourself (especially in larger discussions) and double-check to make sure you're not contributing a duplicate claim!
For more information on how to effectively write claims, see Writing Good Claims.