Disputing flag reviews

Question

It happens occasionally that what seems (to me, the flagger) a straightforward and basically undisputable flag is declined or disputed by a mod.

Reading through some of the related posts, I see that if one flag on a post is disputed, all flags on that post are automatically disputed, which might of course indicate that my flag was never even reviewed, but someone else (probably incorrectly) flagged the same answer, and their flag was disputed. (This seems to me a completely nonsensical way of managing flag disputes, but that’s not what this is about.)

With actual declined flags, though, there is no such ambiguity: someone definitely reviewed my flag and declined it. Now, this in itself is not a problem—it’s how the modding system is supposed to work—but occasionally, the decline just seems to be incorrect.

Most flags I submit are “Not an answer”; so too the one that sparked my writing here. In this question, which asks about the etymology of the suffix -th used to make abstract nouns from adjectives, a user posted this answer dealing with the old third-person verbal ending -th. In my book, that is absolutely not an answer: it is completely unrelated to the matter asked in the question.

Yet the flag was declined with what I am assuming is a standard option: “flags should not be used to indicate technical inaccuracies, or an altogether wrong answer”.

I presume simply flagging the same answer again would likely not help; but is there a ‘proper’ procedure to follow if I want to somehow express that I find the flag review incorrect?

Answer 1

It is my understanding that flags are always handled in bulk, so all flags are marked either helpful or declined. This can be confusing, since it may seem as though your consistent flagging is marked inconsistently, when really it is just a limitation of the system. (I normally mark flags according to the majority, so sometimes I may decline a flag and yet still respond to it as though I might have marked it helpful.)

In the specific case you mention, I declined the flags on the answer because it was an answer, even though it might not be a particularly good one. I have some leeway in providing a custom decline message, but again this message would have gone to everyone who flagged the answer, and in this case, I felt the standard notice was sufficient to cover my judgment.

Usually, I will either delete posts flagged as non-answers or I will convert them to a comment, editing for length as necessary. If the post is at least an attempt to answer the question, then I generally will reject the flag.

In these cases or in any case where the non-answer flag is rejected and you disagree, you might consider leaving a comment for the poster with some specific guidance and giving them time to clarify or add to the post as necessary. If the answer is simply wrong, then downvote. That's what downvoting is for. You may also vote to delete if you feel the content is so egregiously in error that it should not be on the site. (Voting to delete answers is a 20K privilege.)

It is my intent in these instances to direct our community toward helping poor answers to improve.

If you have done all these things and still feel unsatisfied with the situation, ping a mod in chat and we can talk it through.

I hope that answers your question. Let me know if I missed anything.

Answer 2

In the example you give, I agree with the decline: "not an answer" means just that, i.e. it's not even attempting to answer the question. Going on about an unrelated -th ending is totally wrong, but it's still an attempt at an answer. "Not an answer" would be asking a follow-up question ("But how do you explain the -th in 'believeth'?"), or making a comment on someone else's answer ("I don't think the ablaut had anything to do with it."), or trying to start a conversation with someone ("@Anwulf, my cousin's aunt's daughter-in-law's husband also says 'height' like you do.").

If you really do think a decline was incorrect, I think your options are the usual:

• Forget it and move on to the next task
• See if you can find a mod in chat and hash it out
• Post a specific question in Meta (I would only suggest this in particularly egregious cases)

Flagging the same answer again (if the system will even let you do that; I'm not sure it would) is likely to be pointless.

Answer 3

I have also seen very obviously correct flags get disputed and nothing ever comes of it. The flagged posts will just sit there unless you go grab a mod and whine about it convincingly.

It would be handy to have some sort of appeal process for flags that you thought were indisputable. Sometimes people make mistakes when reviewing flags or have an ulterior motive for disagreeing. Or, at the very least, a way to discuss it with a mod to get a more "official" opinion on the subject.