Should mod-flagging be a "last resort"?

Question

A new user recently answered this question querying the syntax of Had they have gone to the same place, they would have talked to one another with...

what about the usage of "Have they had"?
_{^{(sic - that's the exact text)}}

Clearly that's not an answer, and I can't see much hope of it being successfully edited to meaningfully address the question. Anyway, it turned up in the review queue as first answer posted by a new user, where I realised I don't actually know what my preferred course of action should be.

In the event, I chose to flag it for moderator attention, citing "Not an Answer" (note that the clarification text for that option gives It should possibly be an edit, a comment, or another question as potential reasons for flagging).

In this particular case, I wouldn't be interested in seeing it posted as a separate question anyway (though the question: Do mods ever convert such posts into questions? comes to mind).

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But my understanding is that as a general principle, high-rep users are supposed to use their enhanced voting powers to save mods from having to intervene.

So - did I do the right thing? Or should I have simply downvoted - in the expectation that others would do likewise, so that soon the system would automatically have offered us the option of deleting the post without bothering the mods?

Answer 1

what my preferred course of action should be.

1. Leave a comment along the lines of:

   Welcome to English Language & Usage. Note that we follow a strict question-and-answer format and questions posted as answers will be deleted. Note that before asking this as a separate question, you have to add more information as to what your concern is and what you already understood.

   This will tell the poster how to best proceed and reviewers what you think is wrong with the post.

2. Flag the post as not an answer (NAA). This will place the post in the low-quality queue and where users above 2 k reputation can decide upon its deletion. If six users recommend to delete the post from this queue, it will happen. In my experience, this is the most effective way for a post to be deleted.

   Note that flagging as very low quality (VLQ) will have almost the same consequences.

   If a post flagged NAA or VLQ was in this queue for some time (fifteen minutes, IIRC), it will also appear in the moderators’ flag queue. This rather short time span was made for Stack Overflow, and most moderators are aware of this and will leave the flags to be handled by the low-quality queue. Anyway, it’s not your fault that moderator time is wasted with this.

3. If the answer has a non-negative score¹, downvote it to facilitate the following:

4. If you have 20 k reputation, and the post has a negative score, also cast a delete vote. If you ask me, this should happen automatically when you cast a NAA or VLQ flag and vice versa, but it doesn’t. If three 20 k users cast a delete vote, the post will be deleted. However, this rarely happens without the low-quality queue (from which delete votes can also be cast).

Or should I have simply downvoted - in the expectation that others would do likewise, so that soon the system would automatically have offered us the option of deleting the post without bothering the mods?

No. While downvoting enables 20 k users to cast delete votes (see above), it does not bring the post to the attention of anyone who could do so². Flagging as NAA/VLQ does exactly this: It places the post in the low-quality queue, where even 2 k users can cause it to be deleted. (Sidenote: Most such posts are automatically placed in the low-quality queue by heuristics, but I would not bet on this.)

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^{¹ and untraceable +1 notifications in the reputation tracker caused by the post being deleted do not bother you
² well, there is a list of recent delete votes in the 10 k tools, but from my experience it is rarely used}

Answer 2

Flagging is an option in the 'First Post' queue, and the usual reasons are available, including Not An Answer. Since this post could have been written to illustrate what the help page means when it says

"Answers that do not fundamentally answer the question may be removed. This includes answers that are:

commentary on the question or other answers asking another, different question"

it seems likely that four other NAA flags will close the post, and in due course, if not edited into propriety, it will be deleted; all without bothering a mod unless one happens to look at the review queue or this question in the meantime (obviously very unlikely (?)). If you wish to flag for mod attention you could do so, but I see no need, this is unfortunately far from the worst they will have seen recently.

Answer 3

High rep users, with +20K, have the following moderator privilege

Voting to delete answers with score of -1 or lower

If a low quality answer has been downvoted, the delete button appears underneath.

Click on the button, and you'll see your vote has been recorded.

For high rep users, the flag option, "Not an Answer" isn't necessary if you believe that it should be deleted.