Timeline for Add a "link-only answer" flag reason
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 2017 at 10:31 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://meta.stackexchange.com/ with https://meta.stackexchange.com/
|
|
| Jul 14, 2014 at 19:27 | history | edited | Shog9Mod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 129 characters in body
|
| Mar 13, 2013 at 5:37 | history | bounty ended | CommunityBot | ||
| Mar 6, 2013 at 16:06 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | I'm looking for specific problems here, things that can be clearly identified and agreed on by both flaggers and moderators. I'm sure you have something in mind, but I keep hearing, "I want a flag that can be used on answers with links" - which are not necessarily problems in and of themselves. Drop into chat if you wanna discuss this further, @gnat. | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 16:00 | comment | added | gnat | how's that? I don't follow, sorry | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:57 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | Kinda depends on the question, doesn't it @gnat? | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:53 | comment | added | gnat | @Shog9 Can you please elaborate on "do not attempt"? As I already stated above, target URL may have an answer to the question - that qualifies as attempt and successful one to me. The fact that answer is deferred is a separate problem, isn't it? | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:44 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | And why is another flag necessary for answers that "do not attempt to answer the question", @gnat? As I said, the system blocks answers that consist of nothing but a link - is it so hard to read the (minimum 30) characters that are not link and decide whether or not they address the question before flagging? Or are there answers that do attempt to answer the question asked, but you feel should be removed anyway due to the presence of links - if so, why? | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:21 | comment | added | gnat | @Shog9 I find it hard to believe that specific problem is that difficult to recognize. Universal adoption of reference post on link only answers makes me wonder what makes you think it's complicated? As stated there, answers that "deferred the answering to somewhere else" are eligible for flagging, anything else isn't. Put that statement to flag description and go ahead, it's sure not more complicated than one we use for another flag, "This was posted as an answer, but it does not attempt to..." | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:19 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | Your comments and bounty seem to indicate concern that there's ambiguity in the advice here - well, that's why. Look at the other flags: "not an answer", "low quality", "spam", "offensive"... They all describe specific problems... not symptoms. There's no "contains question marks" flag, or "is very short and lacks some punctuation" flag, or "links to a commercial product" flag, or "uses dirty words" flag. Folks are expected, upon seeing such symptoms, to use their heads and decide if those are signs of a more severe problem - a large amount of link in an answer is the same. | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 15:13 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | If folks limited their flagging to answers that clearly made no effort to answer the question, there'd obviously be no need for a new flag @gnat. I've seen folks flagging "link only" answers that explicitly answered the question and then included a link, or that linked to a different SO question, leaving the moderator reviewing the flag to wonder of the flagger thought the question was a duplicate or just thought the answer was too short and didn't want to waste a down-vote. Presumably if you're flagging you have a specific problem in mind - so say what it is. | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 7:29 | comment | added | gnat | ... "Invest the time" yeah sure, just a notch above what it takes for standard not an answer, gotta be freaking hard | |
| Mar 6, 2013 at 7:29 | comment | added | gnat | -1 "doesn't describe why"? give me a break. By definition ("can't stand on their own"), the difference from "classical" not-an-answer is that target URL may have an answer to the question. This makes evaluation of proposed flag as easy as it gets. Jist imagine that underlying link went 404 (for mod handling flag this means simply don't-click-the-link) and decide whether it qualifies as standard not-an-answer if transformed that way. If it does, mark flag helpful and convert-to-comment; otherwise - decline... | |
| Mar 5, 2013 at 16:38 | comment | added | Shog9 Mod | Then refer to devinb's excellent answer there: "When someone goes on StackOverflow, the question "answer" should actually contain an answer. Not just a bunch of directions towards the answer." If the answer clearly makes no effort to answer the question, then there's already a flag for that. | |
| Mar 5, 2013 at 13:47 | comment | added | Doorknob | This is what I mean. | |
| Mar 5, 2013 at 4:10 | history | answered | Shog9Mod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |