One answer gets incomplete "flag" menu — cannot flag as VLQ

Question

I was going to flag this answer as “not an answer” (it’s little more than a bunch of links) when I noticed

that the “flagging” dialog box didn’t include the “very low quality” option:

which is available on other answers.

What’s special about this answer, that it cannot be flagged as VLQ?

Looks like the VLQ flag option disappears if the answer has a positive score. — DavidPostill, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:13
Yes. I guess if at least one person thinks the answer is useful it just can't be VLQ, right? :/ — DavidPostill, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:18
I wonder whether I should delete this now. In hindsight, it feels like a dumb question, but it could be useful to others anyway. — Scott - Слава Україні, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:19
@DavidPostill - What a silly system. I have seen people give an upvote to obvious spam. If it is link only then use that option. — Ramhound, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:19
I occasionally get a flag menu with only one or two options, including the custom reason. I assumed it was because the post is already being reviewed in the system, and only "new" reasons need to be entered for consideration. — fixer1234, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:25
I just tried to flag one of my own answers (0 votes) ;) The only option was "In need of moderator intervention". So at least I know it can't be Spam, NAA, VLQ or Rude/Abusive :/ — DavidPostill, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 20:42
@DavidPostill: Yeah, we're all perfect in our own eyes. :-) ⁠ — Scott - Слава Україні, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 21:05
Scott, no, it's because the system knows that someone with @DavidPostill's record couldn't possibly have a post that isn't exemplary, so it doesn't waste electrons. — fixer1234, Commented Oct 16, 2015 at 21:08

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-20 10:32:23Z

5

As noted in comments and on this Meta answer, VLQ is no longer shown for post having a positive score.

CommunityBot

1

answered Oct 20, 2015 at 8:31

Sathyajith BhatMod

62.1k3 gold badges54 silver badges93 bronze badges

Thanks for the link. The MSE question implicitly raises without resolving the meta-question: is this a new rule? (Starkeen has over a year tenure on the site, and he seemed to be as surprised as I was to stumble upon the abridged menu.) Oded(♦) asks the counter-question, “Why flag before voting? Voting is the first and most important thing to do.” I would respond, “Why vote before flagging? I don’t want the answer to sink to the bottom of the score-sorted list; I want to push it into a review queue, where my peers can vote to delete it.” Does having one more downvote get it deleted any faster?
– Scott - Слава Україні
Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 11:08
In response to my meta-follow up-meta question, “is this a new rule?”, I just now stumbled on this answer from 2011, in which Jeff Atwood♦ says “… we now only allow VLQ on posts with a score of zero or lower for the first seven days …”
– Scott - Слава Україні
Commented Jul 31, 2017 at 22:14

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