My question is a little different from this previous Meta question: Commenting on a high quality audit.
A high-quality question was masqueraded as a new question. All of the previous comments and stats were hidden. I offered a helpful hint to the OP in the form of a comment, after which I was going to indicate that no action was needed. Entry of the comment immediately triggered the Stop! Look and Listen failure notice.
There is nothing wrong with leaving a comment on a high-quality question, and doing so should be irrelevant to an audit. The audit system assumes that any comment is negative, which is not an appropriate response. It is also counter-productive in that it serves to discourage leaving helpful comments.
I understand the purpose of the audit system is to keep people alert, that it isn't perfect, and an occasional failure doesn't mean anything. My point is not about "unjustly" failing an audit question. This is a basic design flaw that should be adjusted in the audit system.
The fix: After a comment, the audit response should be based on selection of an action button.
- It's reasonable to assume that a comment plus "I'm Done" implies a negative or "instructional" comment.
- A comment plus "No action needed" should be assumed to mean that the comment does not imply a perceived problem.
Edit -- Last straw: The First Posts review queue is there for the express purpose of providing feedback to new users. If there is nothing that needs improving in a first question, I try to at least leave a comment with a helpful hint toward a solution to get the ball rolling; to contribute to a positive first experience on the site.
For about the fourth time in recent weeks, doing what the queue is there for resulted in a failed audit due to the system flaw described above. Since doing what is intended in that queue leads to audit failure most of the time, I will stop my own reviews in that queue. If and when the problem is fixed, I hope someone will post that information here.
