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As a follow-up to this post and its related comments & answers, I wonder what's the correct action to take when we encounter the issue. For instance, I came across a post that contains two answers from the same user and IMO they can be merged.

However, it is not clear (to me) how to flag this properly. Should we flag it as "in need of moderator intervention"?

By the way Happy 2023 to all!

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    $\begingroup$ There could be many correct actions here. In the specific thread, the two answers do no harm in my view, but If you think they should be merged -- which is more important than whether they can be merged -- the first thing to try is just a comment to suggest that to the author. A more aggressive approach is to edit one answer to include the other and then flag the other answer as redundant. I don't recommend that myself. Much hinges on whether the original author has died (which we know in some cases) or more generally is no longer active on CV. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Jan 4 at 12:51
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you @NickCox for your thoughtful comments. I really had no idea what was the right action here. $\endgroup$
    – utobi
    Jan 4 at 13:22
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    $\begingroup$ It's worthwhile knowing that moderators do not have any tools to merge answers (we do have tools to merge an answer with a question when both are posted by the same account). To my knowledge, this community has never forcibly merged two answers through a manual editing process: we tend to work through persuasion rather than fiat. $\endgroup$
    – whuber Mod
    Jan 4 at 15:17
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    $\begingroup$ Two original answers by the same user is perfectly ok. $\endgroup$
    – Firebug
    Jan 13 at 20:51

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