These flags were declined because of a misunderstanding and some miscommunication. We're still having some discussions among the moderators about how to handle things like this in the future. I am going to try to sum things up in a fair and unbiased manner. Please, let's try to keep the comments calm and polite - remember, moderators are humans too, and can make mistakes.

• The flags were marked invalid because a moderator felt that quantity of delete flags in that amount of time was excessive.
• There was a sentiment that moderators should not be removing vast quantities of questions at once with no community involvement, and that vote-to-delete privileges should be exercised for this purpose.
• In the future, if you have a long list of questions that you think ought to be removed, it would be preferable to post them in a list on Meta, so that there is some community involvement in the removal process.
• We have a vote to close/delete chat room which can be used for the community to coordinate working together to remove low quality posts
• The general policy for handling flags is that if it appears the user was trying to be helpful, we mark the flag as valid, but this is not always the case.

This was a very isolated case, in which a moderator was unaware that users had been specifically asked to flag questions for deletion under certain criteria, and felt that the deluge of flags was excessive. Rest assured that we do want you to continue flagging posts when you see a problem! There are some times when other means might be better, but please don't be afraid to flag things.

Also, to put this in some perspective: although your flag weight dropped significantly, which is understandably very frustrating, our flag quee is normally short enough that it doesn't really matter. I know this may be of little consolation, but your flags are still being seen. Honestly, flag weight is not nearly the big deal that a lot of people make it out to be. That being said, your concerns about the sudden large drop are valid.

So, in the future, here is what I would recommend:

• As you browse the site, if you happen across stuff that should be removed, feel free to flag it. Adding a bit more explanation (not just saying "Please delete", but why) helps add context to the flag.
• If you're doing a major clean-up effort, then it might be better to put everything in a meta post and let the moderators and users with vote-to-delete privileges work through it at their own pace. This allows more community involvement and doesn't unnecessarily add to the flag queue
• If you are flagging things because of the recommendations on a particular meta post, include a link to it in your flag, for example, please delete - see discussion of clean-up efforts in meta.superuser.com/foo/bar. This way the moderators know you aren't just randomly asking for dozens of questions to be removed.

I'm sorry that this misunderstanding arose. I don't know if there will be any further resolution from this or not, but we are discussing it and will see what happens. In the meantime, remember that flag weight is just a number, and this is just a website. If you keep contributing helpful flags like you have been, it'll go back up. Moderators are human too, sometimes mistakes are made. Let's just take this as a learning opportunity on both sides, and hope we don't have a problem like this again.

Note: these flag decisions were reversed, and soandos's flag weight was restored. This discussion remains for historical completeness, but the issue has been resolved.

These flags were declined because of a misunderstanding and some miscommunication. We're still having some discussions among the moderators about how to handle things like this in the future. I am going to try to sum things up in a fair and unbiased manner. Please, let's try to keep the comments calm and polite - remember, moderators are humans too, and can make mistakes.

• The flags were marked invalid because a moderator felt that quantity of delete flags in that amount of time was excessive.
• There was a sentiment that moderators should not be removing vast quantities of questions at once with no community involvement, and that vote-to-delete privileges should be exercised for this purpose.
• In the future, if you have a long list of questions that you think ought to be removed, it would be preferable to post them in a list on Meta, so that there is some community involvement in the removal process.
• We have a vote to close/delete chat room which can be used for the community to coordinate working together to remove low quality posts
• The general policy for handling flags is that if it appears the user was trying to be helpful, we mark the flag as valid, but this is not always the case.

This was a very isolated case, in which a moderator was unaware that users had been specifically asked to flag questions for deletion under certain criteria, and felt that the deluge of flags was excessive. Rest assured that we do want you to continue flagging posts when you see a problem! There are some times when other means might be better, but please don't be afraid to flag things.

Also, to put this in some perspective: although your flag weight dropped significantly, which is understandably very frustrating, our flag quee is normally short enough that it doesn't really matter. I know this may be of little consolation, but your flags are still being seen. Honestly, flag weight is not nearly the big deal that a lot of people make it out to be. That being said, your concerns about the sudden large drop are valid.

So, in the future, here is what I would recommend:

• As you browse the site, if you happen across stuff that should be removed, feel free to flag it. Adding a bit more explanation (not just saying "Please delete", but why) helps add context to the flag.
• If you're doing a major clean-up effort, then it might be better to put everything in a meta post and let the moderators and users with vote-to-delete privileges work through it at their own pace. This allows more community involvement and doesn't unnecessarily add to the flag queue
• If you are flagging things because of the recommendations on a particular meta post, include a link to it in your flag, for example, please delete - see discussion of clean-up efforts in meta.superuser.com/foo/bar. This way the moderators know you aren't just randomly asking for dozens of questions to be removed.

I'm sorry that this misunderstanding arose. I don't know if there will be any further resolution from this or not, but we are discussing it and will see what happens. In the meantime, remember that flag weight is just a number, and this is just a website. If you keep contributing helpful flags like you have been, it'll go back up. Moderators are human too, sometimes mistakes are made. Let's just take this as a learning opportunity on both sides, and hope we don't have a problem like this again.

These flags were declined because of a misunderstanding and some miscommunication. We're still having some discussions among the moderators about how to handle things like this in the future. I am going to try to sum things up in a fair and unbiased manner. Please, let's try to keep the comments calm and polite - remember, moderators are humans too, and can make mistakes.

• The flags were marked invalid because a moderator felt that quantity of delete flags in that amount of time was excessive.
• There was a sentiment that moderators should not be removing vast quantities of questions at once with no community involvement, and that vote-to-delete privileges should be exercised for this purpose.
• In the future, if you have a long list of questions that you think ought to be removed, it would be preferable to post them in a list on Meta, so that there is some community involvement in the removal process.
• We have a vote to close/delete chat room which can be used for the community to coordinate working together to remove low quality posts
• The general policy for handling flags is that if it appears the user was trying to be helpful, we mark the flag as valid, but this is not always the case.

This was a very isolated case, in which a moderator was unaware that users had been specifically asked to flag questions for deletion under certain criteria, and felt that the deluge of flags was excessive. Rest assured that we do want you to continue flagging posts when you see a problem! There are some times when other means might be better, but please don't be afraid to flag things.

I'm sorry that this misunderstanding arose. I don't know if there will be any further resolution from this or not, but we are discussing it and will see what happens. In the meantime, remember that flag weight is just a number, and this is just a website. If you keep contributing helpful flags like you have been, it'll go back up. Moderators are human too, sometimes mistakes are made. Let's just take this as a learning opportunity on both sides, and hope we don't have a problem like this again.

These flags were declined because of a misunderstanding and some miscommunication. We're still having some discussions among the moderators about how to handle things like this in the future. I am going to try to sum things up in a fair and unbiased manner. Please, let's try to keep the comments calm and polite - remember, moderators are humans too, and can make mistakes.

• The flags were marked invalid because a moderator felt that quantity of delete flags in that amount of time was excessive.
• There was a sentiment that moderators should not be removing vast quantities of questions at once with no community involvement, and that vote-to-delete privileges should be exercised for this purpose.
• In the future, if you have a long list of questions that you think ought to be removed, it would be preferable to post them in a list on Meta, so that there is some community involvement in the removal process.
• We have a vote to close/delete chat room which can be used for the community to coordinate working together to remove low quality posts
• The general policy for handling flags is that if it appears the user was trying to be helpful, we mark the flag as valid, but this is not always the case.

This was a very isolated case, in which a moderator was unaware that users had been specifically asked to flag questions for deletion under certain criteria, and felt that the deluge of flags was excessive. Rest assured that we do want you to continue flagging posts when you see a problem! There are some times when other means might be better, but please don't be afraid to flag things.

I'm sorry that this misunderstanding arose. I don't know if there will be any further resolution from this or not, but we are discussing it and will see what happens. In the meantime, remember that flag weight is just a number, and this is just a website. If you keep contributing helpful flags like you have been, it'll go back up. Moderators are human too, sometimes mistakes are made. Let's just take this as a learning opportunity on both sides, and hope we don't have a problem like this again.