The user who posted the question, and consequently the second account that posted a garbage answer, were apparently attempting to troll and had been posting similar to other sites on the network.

Unless you were active on the other sites or intentionally checked then you would not have known.

Both spam and rude/abisive flags feed into the spam prevention system and will block users from posting more garbage.  A single flag is unlikely to hit the filter but multiple generally will, especially if multiple users appear at the same IP, and it can be an effective temporary stop for casual trolls.

The main function of the VLQ flag from the users perspective is to push the item into the review queues, for other users to look at and action if necessary, and to point it out to moderators. In that it served its purpose.

After that it depends on what action *needs* to be taken as to whether other flags also get applied.

I doubt VLQ is used as a close/deletion reason that often, especially as we already have the "nuclear what you are asking" close reason already.


  [1]: https://meta.superuser.com/search?q=user%3A19943%20vlq