My answer to this problem is for the moderators to agree on leaving one spot alone, ie the first or the latest.
I would suggest that the latest spot is left by all moderators and only dupes prior to the latest one be deleted. That should be a fool proof method if adhered to by all moderators.
I would suggest that the latest spot is left by all moderators and
only dupes prior to the latest one be deleted. That should be a fool
proof method if adhered to by all moderators.
But incompatible with my personal policy, as it happens. I will usually remove my own spot if I see that somebody has beaten me to it and I have no new information to add. It seems only polite to remove my own accidental clutter, and of course I don’t know what the moderators might have agreed amongst themselves.
Asynchronous update protocols where you need “exactly once” semantics are really quite a tricky problem.
That’s a good point Martyn, I have to agree. I usually remove my own duplicate spots too, maybe it’s a better suggestion to ask all spotters to take the same action.