I recently came across an answer that consisted entirely of the text
yeah apply the poweder okay>
This is obviously not an answer, but I also think the answer was posted in bad faith, as I mentioned in the custom flag I raised
From the non-answer, the username, the spam links in the comments, and now deleted rude comment, I don't think this answer was posted in good faith.
The flag was declined with the reason that I should have raised a standard flag
declined - Using standard flags helps us prioritize problems and resolve them faster. Please familiarize yourself with the list of standard flags: see What is Flagging?
The issue is that from what I understand, standard flags are meant to be used when the content being flagged obviously falls into one of the flag categories. The only flag that fits this case is NAA, but I think a harsher penalty was warranted (for reasons I explained in my flag) than just the answer being deleted. Of course, I would raise a R/A flag to indicate something like that, but based only on the answer, I don't think it's rude or abusive. Perhaps this answer is considered R/A on English Language & Usage?
The key point here is the word obvious. My understanding of the mod tooling is that comments (deleted or otherwise) are not shown automatically, which means the spam links and rudeness in the comments might have gone unnoticed. The advice I've been given is that in cases where it might not be obvious to the moderator what the issue is, a custom flag is preferable. However, this advice was given by moderators on Stack Overflow, where they deal with considerably more flags than on other sites (from what I've heard), and so they tend not to look at all the information they have access to when dealing with any particular flag. Perhaps it works differently on English Language & Usage?
What did I do wrong here, and what should I have done instead?
