Why were my "not an answer" flags on these answers declined? What should I have done instead?

Question

I came across these two answers to an old question, which to my mind are simply link-only answers. Hence, I flagged them as NAA to push them into the review queue for the more experienced members of this community to take a look at and judge according to current standards. (Both answers are by currently reasonably high-reputation members of the community.)

I am aware that this says that flags shouldn't be used when the community has the ability to handle the situation. However, I don't have sufficient reputation here at present to even vote to close, let alone vote to delete. So the way for me to try to help curate the site in that manner is to push things into the review queues. (That said, and not for bragging rights, at 50k rep network-wide, diamond on one site, self-relinquished diamond on another, and an about 90% helpful flags rate on Server Fault, I think I have a decent idea of how the Stack Exchange system works and a reasonable grasp of this community's standards.)

I was rather surprised when I saw that the two flags had been declined - flags should only be used to make moderators aware of content that requires their intervention. I didn't expect a moderator to unilaterally delete the answers, or even really take any unilateral action at all; I was hoping for the community to take a look at them.

• What should I have done instead of flagging, keeping in mind that the most recent activity on the question was almost five years ago?
• Why were the flags declined? (Optional to answer, but would be nice to know.)

Answer 1

First off, these are really old question and answers, which makes inertia important (It is not useful to pick through everything in our history for stuff that no longer fits with our current viewpoints).
Regardless, the first answer does have another answer than the links it posts:

The questions you're asking are answered in the hier(7) man page.

Read the manual is an answer, and in some cases it is the correct answer.

Secondly, not all link answers are inherently wrong, there are exceptions, doubly so with old posts.
From the post you yourself cited:

There's really only one valid exception to this rule, and that's when the question is:

Suggest me some tutorials where i can learn quick.

The question that has the answers you flagged:

Where can I find an explanation ... ?

I would put this in the same bucket as asking for tutorials.
So in practice... flag the question, it asks for tutorials / learning material and is OT.
But is it worth it for a question from 2010?

Answer 2

First off: Flagging link only answers is the correct thing to do.
You may also edit the answer if you're so inclined.

Second opinions can differ but in this specific Q & A I would most likely have declined the flag too, because :

• The answer is 5 years old

Not every old Q & A is worth judging to current standards.

• The answer is Accepted by the OP

So despite being nearly a link only answer the OP found it useful.

Additionally such an answer is actually the best in this specific case, it is so because that is the standaard and reproducing (sections of) the standard would not really improve the answer as much as simply pointing there.

• The answer is upvoted a number of times

and at the time apparently a number of other community members found it a useful answer too.

And last: AFAIK there is no "black mark" if your flags get declined.

Answer 3

Just for completeness, I declined both of these flags because:

In both cases, the answers could easily be improved by editing them, and this is not something you need a moderator for. Also they stand well enough on their own, that even if the links went dead they would still be useful. Iain has covered these points pretty well, so I won't belabor them.

Answer 4

Both of those answers are valid and will remain valid even if the links go dead, all someone has to do is go looking based on the information provided.

They are absolutely answers and should not have been flagged NAA.

There are lost of things you could have done with out flagging ...

You could have gone looking and found an online version of the hier(7) man page and you could have edited it into the accepted answer it's about 12k characters so it would fit.

The FSH and LSB though are too big to edit onto the 30K character limit set by SE so really the only option the OP had was to mention them by name and then leave helpful links. You could have done nothing in that case.

I just checked elsewhere and whilst there is an option for a Very Low Quality on Questions, the same does not exist for Answers.

I guess, if you felt the answers were low quality you should have either edited them (if possible) to fix them up, downvoted and/or left a comment.

Answer 5

One of those did show up as a low quality review. I voted Looks OK, because the question asked where an explanation can be found and the proper answer to that question is a link. And I don't know any better answer to that question, than the first of the two links provided.