Why did moderators decline most of my flags even if they were helpful?

Question

I see this message more often nowadays.

Attention: some of your recent flags have been declined - please review them before flagging this post!

And the reason, almost always is given as

declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it

But the actual flagged posts are deleted or closed or punished as needed.

Here are some examples where the flagged posts are deleted. I can't visit the links myself, but maybe high-reppers can. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I have a dozen examples where they are closed. And I get banned ultimately. I don't understand why.

Question:

• So why decline my flags in the first place?
• Do mods see my name with the flags?
• Are these some sort of personal revenge-declines? How's this even possible?

---

Conclusion:

• The linked posts that I flagged to delete, were in fact deleted, not by a mod, but for various reasons and sometimes by the actual OPs. And I assume the same fate for my other flag-declined posts.
• The mods that did review these flags, thought it's best not to kill the posts instantly and chose to decline my flags instead.

And thanks to all for your help.

Update (30/5/16): I now have a gold Marshal badge, thanks to my improved flagging behaviour! Now I'm one among the 21 users so far to have ever received it on ELU. :)

Answer 1

1. So why decline my flags in the first place?

As we told you before, do not use VLQ flags as close votes. Low-quality questions should be downvoted and close voted, not flagged. When you keep doing it and we keep declining your flags, you get the notice to review your declined flags. If you ignore the notice, you have your flag privileges revoked automatically because you don't seem to be getting the message: Stop flagging off-topic questions as VLQ.

2. Do mods see my name with the flags?

We see names with some types of flags, not with others. Sometimes we can identify a flagger if we want to go through a lot of effort to look. There aren't any in the queue at the moment, but I believe that we can see the flagger for VLQ flags.

3. Are these some sort of personal revenge-declines? How's this even possible?

Your flags have been declined by a variety of moderators. The declines are not personal. Moderators decline flags that are not valid for a variety of reasons. The user who raised the flag is not generally something we even notice. If you are finding that a large number of your flags are declined, it is because you are not flagging appropriately. Your automatic suspension from flagging is a clear indication that you need to adjust your flagging behavior.

_{4. What defines a post as objectively flag-worthy?}

_{These do.}