81

Update

A new feature was added, but there appears to be no documentation out there. The change in flag weight caused by each flagging still missing.

TL;DR:

Flag weight is not very clear. Just telling the user how many flags got approved/rejected would increase the flagging behavior. Additionally, flag feedback could improve this even more.

Question:

Flag weight is shown on a User's profile as a number between 0 and 750, each user starts with 100. The problem is that after reaching 500, flag weight increases in a sub-linear fashion, and it becomes hard to tell how many flags were considered to be correct or incorrect.

I find it easy to remember "I am at 250" and when I come back, discover "I am at 280", so I had 3 flags approved.

Nowadays, "I am at 576.3529". When I view my profile tomorrow, I'll be at 577.1285 or something, but I won't know how many flags got approved, denied or were ignored.

  • Would "10 flags approved, 3 flags denied, 2 flags pending" not provide more useful information? Even if it's just a pop-up box (StackExchange seems to use span-title for that).
  • Additionally, being able to see what flags were denied would provide feedback to the user that is flagging in a way not desired by the moderator(s), and improve the flagging quality.

Maybe we can click on the flag weight to see a page with all our flags, the status (approved/denied/pending), the moderator that reviewed the flag, and maybe a comment the moderator left to explain why the flag was denied?

Improve this question
5
  • 4
    Because of the sublinear thing, if your flag weight went up you can be pretty sure they were all approved. I'm over 700 now and I think having 42 flags approved would give me less gain than the loss from having one flag denied.
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Mar 26, 2011 at 17:14
  • 2
    I had high hopes for this proposal when I read the title...
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Mar 26, 2011 at 18:42
  • 3
    @Grace the only game where the score is not shown is the Russian roulette
    – Dr. belisarius
    Commented Mar 26, 2011 at 20:08
  • 4
    Well, flag weight was never a priority for me, but somehow I'm sad to see it go. RIP, flag weight.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 13:48
  • 1
    I gained this much flag weight and now it's all for naught! :'-(
    – Pekka
    Commented Mar 4, 2012 at 13:43

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
90
+500

Fine, I removed flag weight. It is gone.

Instead you now see a count of helpful flags you raised on your user profile. You can see this number on anybody else's profile as well.

This number can be clicked to give you a breakdown of how we counted it, only when viewing your own profile.

The 2 badges Deputy and Marshal were adjusted, however we did not strip any old granted badges.

Improve this answer
20
  • 2
    Questions! I have them. Since comment flags are now included in the breakdown, do they count for the adjusted badges? Also, does that mean they'll show up in the flagging history? Only I appear to have a declined comment flag and I'd like to see what it was.
    – a cat
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 4:48
  • 17
    "Fine, I removed flag weight. It is gone." - Well you don't have to sound so happy about it =)
    – Josh Darnell
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 4:49
  • 1
    Oh, and the † footnote for disputed flags seems to have evaporated.
    – a cat
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 4:49
  • 2
    @lunboks ... they always did count for the badges, and they continue to count ... the text is "raised 80 helpful flags"
    – waffles
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 4:51
  • 3
    @lunboks flag weight is no longer a concept end users need to worry about
    – waffles
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 4:52
  • 15
    I enjoyed watching my flag weight go up by a fraction of a point. :/
    – Anthony Pegram
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 5:04
  • 6
    Now that the fear of getting a declined flag is gone, prepare for 100x more flags to litter your queue!
    – chown
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 5:08
  • 3
    Thanks! It is more clear this way, but you didn't need to remove the negative impact for flagging wrongfully. Maybe add a counter to "unhelpful" flags as well? ;]
    – Konerak
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 5:20
  • 17
    @Konerak gross unhelpful flagging is abuse, the vast majority of people flag helpfully, if people game this to get a badge they will be dealt with
    – waffles
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 5:22
  • 5
    Aww. Yesterday evening I went over the 740-threshold on SO and I somehow felt pride. I already was preparing mentally for watching the flag weight to go up in fractions of hundredths. This morning I got the Marshal-badge... - While I enjoy getting a gold badge, I feel a bit sad that it came in this fast. And now for the next badge! :)
    – sjngm
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 6:36
  • 1
    After overcoming the initial "Eeeeeek!" reaction to the change on my profile, this does seem to be a clearer concept. Nice change.
    – Rob Hruska
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 14:06
  • 2
    I like everything about this except for the part where I went from needing 7 more helpful flags to get a Deputy badge to 63. Eeeeeeek!
    – TCPMAN.EXE
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 22:30
  • 2
    @mootinator agree, we should use more confusing numbers for our badges ... copy editor should require 493 edits and so on ...
    – waffles
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 22:33
  • 2
    No, no @waffles this is me whining that you didn't convert my 430 flag weight into at least 33 helpful flags (instead of the 17 the database knows about) since I got half of that score before it was being tracked. sob etc. I promise to get over it. Sending me a StackOverflow mug wouldn't hurt the process either. Just saying.
    – TCPMAN.EXE
    Commented Jan 20, 2012 at 22:39
  • 2
    @mootinator my 730+ flag weight is now a "31 helpful" as 400+ of the flags I have submitted were before the helpful/unhelpful bit was added. You can imagine how thrilled I am with this change :-( I'm not even sure what the benefit is, as previously you could just click on the flag weight to find your number of helpful flags...
    – dave.c
    Commented Jan 25, 2012 at 12:56
16

You can now view a detailed log of your flagging history by clicking on your flag weight in your profile. The url is http://stackoverflow.com/users/flag-summary/<uid> . I guess this closes this matter.

Improve this answer
1
0

Why exactly do you need to know how many flags were approved? If you did need to know that, you'd get a history of your flags and whether or not they were dismissed valid or invalid.

Improve this answer
3
  • 6
    Knowing how many tags were approved gives some pointers on how good job you are doing. I think introducing flag weight (or counters, as proposed here) was really good idea. Before that flagging was completely black box, which sucks, and eats motivation to do so from many people, including myself.
    – Olli
    Commented Mar 27, 2011 at 11:03
  • @Olli Sure, so why do you want this score hidden exactly?
    – badp
    Commented Mar 27, 2011 at 20:09
  • 2
    Errr. I did not say that I want it to be hidden. Please read whole question instead of just title. Flag weight is sublinear after 500 - you can't know what's happening. Before that it's somewhat useful. But "10 flags approved, 3 flags denied, 2 flags pending" is much more useful for following what is happening with your flags.
    – Olli
    Commented Mar 28, 2011 at 5:33

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .