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Recommend closure flags are reviewed by the community in the Close Votes review queue. Based on the results of this voting, these flags can be declined if reviewers disagree that the question should be closed. Currently the flags are simply declined, with no reason provided.

I think it would be useful to provide some context in the decline reason. I'd suggest having the system automatically add a link to the review that triggered the decline in the text of the flag response. It might help to explain situations like this, so people are aware that moderators did not decline these flags.

This would also be helpful if the system gains the ability to decline "very low quality" or "not an answer" flags on unanimous votes in the Low Quality Posts queue. It could prevent a few angry "stupid moderators declined my flag" posts on Meta.

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  • I'm not sure I want this. It would point the angry-at-declined-flags people towards the reviewers. Handling angry users is kind of a mod's job, reviewers don't need this crap.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 17:40
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    @Gilles Moderators are people too.
    – George Stocker
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 17:45
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    @Gilles - The reviews are already public, though, and can be found by anyone with some effort. Right now, they get no reason at all, which doesn't help with the educational purpose of declining flags. Even a simple automated response of "after community review, voters concluded that this did not warrant closing" without the link would be helpful.
    – Brad Larson
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 17:47
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    And by the way: stating clearly in the decline message that the decline is an automatic consequence of a review conclusion, yes, sure. But I'm against linking to the review. Let whiners dig if they're really motivated. There's nothing teachable in a review that leads to a declined close flag, just a bunch of people who voted “do not close”.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 17:48
  • @Gilles The review does show if there is contention or if it's unanimous, and I believe that's useful as well.
    – George Stocker
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 18:35
  • @GeorgeStocker If the review isn't unanimous, isn't the flag marked as helpful?
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 18:38
  • @BradLarson in what way are the reviews public to that level? I'll give you that 10K users can find them if they want to slog through the review history, but with the exception of suggested edits, there is no mechanism non-10K users to find a specific review even if they wanted too. Granted they aren't hidden from view but it still doesn't make them "publicly available".
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 12:34
  • Personally I'd like to see this as it can be useful for the educational reasons mentioned. But I echo @Gilles's concerns. There is enough petty BS that goes on with "why was my perfect answer deleted" and "user foo downvoted me" that I would be concerned about about it opening up more whining and complaining about and to specific users about their actions in review.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 12:39
  • @psubsee2003 - They are public in the sense that if you have the link to them (which as you say can be obtained by slogging through review history lists) anyone can see them. Not the most practical use of your time, I admit, but they are there. I guess I think about reviews as I do close votes, in that the voters are made public somewhere and the reasoning of the votes might help show what people were thinking (whether something was unanimously rejected, more controversial, etc.).
    – Brad Larson
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 17:48
  • @BradLarson but that's my point. Unless I am missing something, the only review history I have access to is my own (on most sites). I cannot see any other reviews. IIRC, that is a 10K privilege as I can see the entire review history on MSE, but no where else.
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Jan 6, 2015 at 18:27
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    Instead of linking to the review item, would a result summary suffice, "disputed by review: x times close, y times leave open"?
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 18:46
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    I've just run into this exact situation and was directed here (meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/284871/…) The question was later put on hold for being too broad, but I see that's different from being closed as off-topic. I feel that this would be a useful feature. Maybe some kind soul could create a flowchart of common possibilites for those wishing to learn and contribute correct and proper flagging! =]
    – Relequestual
    Commented Jan 29, 2015 at 17:17

1 Answer 1

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Back when this question was asked, some were concerned that making the review link more prominent would cause grief for the reviewers -- yes you can find the info, but most people won't go hunting. Since then, though, review links were added to the canned comments from the Low Quality/NAA review queue, and that doesn't seem to have caused problems. So yes, by all means, if a flag is handled, especially declined, by a review action, let's let the flagger know!

We already do this:

review comment

So let's also do this:

flag feedback

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