Did both of these answers have to be deleted?

Question

I posted identical answers to these two questions:

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/68079/mount-cifs-network-drive-write-permissions-and-chown/375329#375329
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/145497/how-to-make-a-cifs-smb-mount-ignore-umask/375328#375328

The answer I posted was:

noperm fstab flag allows all users to read and write to the CIFS mount.

The comment left on one of my answers was:

Please don't post identical answers. If the questions really are identical, flag them as duplicates. If not, modify your answer to fit each question. In any case, this is a comment, not an answer. You give no explanation of what this option does, how it is supposed to be used, whether it is safe or anything.

I can understand how posting identical answers would not be desired. But is that a reason to delete both answers? Is there ever a legitimate case for having the same answers for two questions who diverge enough and aren't marked as duplicates?

As for the second part of the comment, I believe my answer clearly states what the flag does and how it's used: I explicitly state it's an fstab flag and that it gives all users read and write access to the CIFS mount. I don't know how clearer I could be except for giving an example.

Ideally I would have liked to have a chance to modify my answer before getting them both deleted. It just seems so harsh and unforgiving when all I'm trying to do is give helpful answers which I would have loved to have read when looking at those questions.

Answer 1

I'm the culprit here. I deleted your answer because it wasn't really answering the question. It was a comment rather than an answer and wasn't really providing something that could be used by the OP.

If you really want to post that as an answer, include an example of an fstab file with that option set, or at least an explanation of how fstab options can be set. I would also strongly urge you to explain what the option does. It doesn't simply allow writing the CIFS share, it allows everyone to read, write and execute. The OP is asking how to allow a specific user, and you are suggesting letting anyone be able to delete their files.

Also, the OP shows no indication that they're even using fstab so a useful answer would at least explain how to add that option to the command line they were using.

So, feel free to post again but please flesh it out so that it is actually giving the answer and not the first step from which an answer might be inferred.