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I posted an answer on How can I reinstall Windows 7 on a laptop without the drivers CD? and then deleted it (on Saturday, 2 days ago)

After I deleted it using my mobile phone, I see the following screen shot

enter image description here

I then danced between the desktop and mobile phone to ensure the problem only occurs on mobile phone, which it does.

It's a bug on the mobile (Android, Firefox) version. It really isn't spam! :)

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There's a bug not having anything to do with the mobile site. Here's what happened:

  1. You answered the question and it wasn't spam.
  2. Someone mistakenly thought it was spam and flagged your answer that way.
  3. You deleted your own answer.
  4. The system interpreted the deletion as validating the spam flag.

The bug is in the last step. Typically there are only two ways that spam posts get deleted:

  1. It gathers 6 spam flags and is deleted automatically.
  2. A moderator deletes the post.

In those cases, it makes sense for the flag to be validated. But the system should not validate the flag if the author self-deletes the post before those events have happened. So one of our developers has cleared the spam flag from the post. We are also considering updating the code to not count self-deleting posts as validating spam or offensive flags.

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    But then what would happen if we manage to guilt a real spammer into deleting their own post, which I'm sure we've managed before... Surely the spam flag should be validated in that case?
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 18:30
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    @Mokubai: We talked about that internally and this is our main concern. We're going to look into it further, but I don't think most actual spammers would hit on this strategy. Also: xkcd.com/810
    – Jon Ericson Staff
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 18:40
  • I think I have to disagree, unless I missunderstood which is very likely :) I tested my post between the desktop version and mobile version. The desktop was fine, the issue was only on the mobile site
    – Dave
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 19:18
  • @Dave: Do you still see the message on mobile? Now that the spam flag has been invalidated, it shouldn't show up at all. I think the difference is that the notice is a lot bigger relative to the rest of the page on mobile. (To be honest, I've never seen the notice at all, so it might not exist on the full page.)
    – Jon Ericson Staff
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 21:15
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    I'd actually gotten a spammer to guilt delete before. If you you can master that level of snark, they are never coming back. If they self delete excessively, they're going to hit a robo-suspension anyway
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented May 11, 2015 at 23:44
  • Jon, OK you are right! I no longer see the spam message, I see what I would expect now so yes, all resolved. Thank you
    – Dave
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 5:01

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