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This came up recently in the Physics meta, and as it is a network-wide issue I am bringing it here.

Currently, the 10k tools page in Physics (and, I surmise, network-wide) has a toolbar on the top which includes a very visible red counter showing a count of flags. However, upon clicking on it, the counter seldom has anything to do with the actual number of flags available to review. If there are flags for me to review, the counter will typically show more than those, and very often I will be unable to see any flags at all:

enter image description here

This has come up before in this MSO answer, but the question it appears in seems to describe a different bug (the counter dis- and re-appearing over time) which was addressed and marked by Jarrod Dixon ♦. I raised this issue as a in the Physics meta, and Oded ♦ gave an explanation for that behaviour:

One you have flagged, but so have others - you are seeing the count of others on it, but you can't see it because you have flagged it.

The second one also has a couple of flags on it, but one of those is a moderator flag. The count includes the non-moderator flag, but the moderator flag prevents you from seeing the post.

So... the count is that of current non-moderator flags (minus yours), the posts don't show up in your list for two different reasons.

EDIT: On second thought, this may not be quite as simple. The flag count I see sometimes depends on what tab I'm in. At the moment I see the counter at 4 when I'm in the stats through delete tabs, and it goes down to 3 in the flags tab (with no flags shown, as in the image above).


I contend that this is a design flaw: that counter should show the number of posts (or flags) I can and should help out with. There is no reason for me to know that there are posts with moderator flags on them, and it is redundant to show me posts I have already flagged. That counter is prominently visible across all of the 10k tools so that I will go to that page when there's flags I should be handling. Having a nonzero value when there's nothing I can see makes me have to go to the flags page to check whether there's anything, and completely invalidates the purpose of the counter.

Also, while I'm at this, can the flags page say something like There are currently no flags for you to review, much like the review queues currently do, when there are no flags there?

enter image description here

It is a bit unnerving to have a blank screen there.

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  • Just so you don't feel ignored here: we do have a long-term (6-8 weeks) plan to fix this; it's not as easy as it sounds.
    – Shog9
    Sep 14, 2013 at 1:10
  • @Shog9 Thanks for the update - I was feeling pretty lonely here. I can definitely understand this being nontrivial; I look forward to the fix.
    – E.P.
    Sep 14, 2013 at 11:43
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    @Shog9 12 weeks now.... any update? Dec 8, 2013 at 8:16
  • Nothing yet; folks been a bit distracted @Sha
    – Shog9
    Dec 8, 2013 at 18:12
  • @Shog9 all good just want to know it's somewhere on your mind. :) Dec 8, 2013 at 18:33
  • @Shog9 I imagine you meant 'months' instead of 'weeks' :D. Can I ask what's the status of this?
    – E.P.
    Mar 20, 2014 at 12:46
  • See: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/226092/…
    – Shog9
    Mar 20, 2014 at 13:29

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