Does Mahalo have some kind of indicator that can let us know if our question has already been asked by another Mahaloian?

At the moment there is nothing like this implemented on Mahalo. As to whether or not it's a good idea to add something along those lines, I'd have to say probably not. Here are some arguments against it.

If you are paying the tip, it is up to you to exercise your due diligence and see if you can find the answer on Mahalo Answers (MA). If the tip is small (say under M$5) , it is probably not worth your time to spend the time searching Mahalo for an answer. If at all, you'd spend the time researching the answer yourself using Google or some other search engine.

For very specific questions, where real expertise is needed, and you'd expect to spend M$10 or more, you can always search MA first. From Mahalo's perspective, the more similar questions and answers there are, the more highly ranked the site becomes. Thus, having several similar questions and answers is a good thing for Mahalo, even if they have to pay a M$0.25 tip, which in reality costs them next to nothing (less than US$0.19 per question, at most, $0 now that they removed the default tip completely, and even if they bring it back, most users will not reach the M$150 minimum and will end up "spending" their M$s back in the site, generating even more ad revenue for the same virtual money).

Again from Mahalo's perspective, if you come in and want to ask a M$50 question that has already been asked and answered, and you don't bother to check first if you can get the answer free of charge by simply searching MA, then they will happily take your US$50, and pay out M$50 to the best answer provider, pocketing the US$12.50 as pure profit, and possibly the other US$37.50 if the answerer ends up never cashing out. Finally, from your own perspective, unless the question is a trivial one such as what's the capital of France (yes, I answered that once on MA), then you may well get better answers, or even complementary answers that add to your knowledge even if you have answers from a previous thread on the same topic. This is simply because MA members come and go, and not all MA members see each question, so you would get answers from a different set of members if you asked the same question a week later, let alone if it is a month or a year later.

Several months experience on Mahalo Answers. At the moment there is nothing like this implemented on Mahalo. As to whether or not it's a good idea to add something along those lines, I'd have to say probably not.

Here are some arguments against it. If you are paying the tip, it is up to you to exercise your due diligence and see if you can find the answer on Mahalo Answers (MA). If the tip is small (say under M$5) , it is probably not worth your time to spend the time searching Mahalo for an answer.

If at all, you'd spend the time researching the answer yourself using Google or some other search engine. For very specific questions, where real expertise is needed, and you'd expect to spend M$10 or more, you can always search MA first. From Mahalo's perspective, the more similar questions and answers there are, the more highly ranked the site becomes.

Thus, having several similar questions and answers is a good thing for Mahalo, even if they have to pay a M$0.25 tip, which in reality costs them next to nothing (less than US$0.19 per question, at most, $0 now that they removed the default tip completely, and even if they bring it back, most users will not reach the M$150 minimum and will end up "spending" their M$s back in the site, generating even more ad revenue for the same virtual money). Again from Mahalo's perspective, if you come in and want to ask a M$50 question that has already been asked and answered, and you don't bother to check first if you can get the answer free of charge by simply searching MA, then they will happily take your US$50, and pay out M$50 to the best answer provider, pocketing the US$12.50 as pure profit, and possibly the other US$37.50 if the answerer ends up never cashing out. Finally, from your own perspective, unless the question is a trivial one such as what's the capital of France (yes, I answered that once on MA), then you may well get better answers, or even complementary answers that add to your knowledge even if you have answers from a previous thread on the same topic.

This is simply because MA members come and go, and not all MA members see each question, so you would get answers from a different set of members if you asked the same question a week later, let alone if it is a month or a year later.