Why was this PF 1e question about a sorcerer using Page of Spell Knowledge with higher-level spells closed as a duplicate?

Question

This question: As a Sorcerer, can use I use a Page of Knowledge to use Spell Slots granted by my Charisma bonus, even if they're higher level then otherwise?

Was closed as being a duplicate of Can a spellcaster use spell slots above their normal limit if their ability scores allow bonus spells of that level?

And I don't understand why.

Before I asked, I checked both google and rpg.stackexchange search, and I couldn't find an answer to the question. And when you ask a question you get a list of potential duplicates, and the other couldn't be found there - I checked them all and didn't find it.

My question was basically "Considering my character has A, B and C, can I do D?", while the other question was "Considering my character has C, can I do E?".

The answers were the same - "Because rule F, C doesn't work."

But when asking a question, the answer is unknown. So how could I have know that they would have ended up as duplicates, and how can I avoid this in the future?

Answer 1

On further thought, your question is not a duplicate

You ask:

Let's say I craft a Page of Limited Wish [...] Would this allow me to cast Limited Wish? I have a spell slot of the appropriate level (higher, even), and I have the page to make the spell "known" to me.

And the supposed dupe asks:

Can Xylitol cast 1st level spells using the bonus slots for his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spells? 

You ask about casting a spell you don't even know, by using a magic item and whether this is a way to use high-level spell slots. The other question asks about upcasting spells they do know, without using a magic item, and whether this is a way to use high-level spell slots.

Both questions make the same incorrect assumption but are asking about different things. To look at it another way, if the assumption that you can have bonus spell slots that are above your usual level was correct, these questions would be, at least to some extent, different questions. Just because they made the same wrong assumption does not mean they ask the same thing.

I will say that even if these are not duplicates they are very similar questions. I believe my descriptions of them above show just how similar they are, but they are nonetheless, asking different things.

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That said, duplicates are actually helpful

When question A is closed as a duplicate of question B, this increases the number of ways people can find the answer to question A/B. It means the Google and site searches have both been improved, sometimes dramatically.

So there is nothing wrong with posting a question that is marked as a duplicate, it just means you didn't find it, and I can tell you, none of us can find everything. In fact, I regularly upvote question that are closed as duplicates that were not alarmingly easy to find (like a near-exact title match) because the question is still a good question.

In terms of actually finding a duplicate, they can be looked for in primarily three ways: An Internet search, the auto-generated suggested list, and, what I use the most, site search with tags and keywords. For example this search or this search, (where the second works only because I just added the spell-slots tag to that question). Site searching is difficult and imperfect, and sometimes your favorite internet browser just knows much better.