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When users flag answers with NAA or VLQ, they flow into the Low Quality review queue, unless the answer is accepted. Accepted answers with these flags bypass the review queue and head directly to the moderator queue for processing. The problem is that we don't know if it is a flag for a moderator to process.

For example, on Stack Overflow we may have 100+ VLQ flags and 300+ NAA flags at any given time. Unless we open the post, we don't know if it is a flag that needs our attention or if the community is going to process it.

Can we get some sort of indicator on the post in the queue that it is accepted? Or even better a separate queue for VLQ/NAA flags that are accepted?

We already get similar things on posts, when it's been deleted from review, or edited by another moderator. It could be as easy as:

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I agree with the request for the indicator, but not exactly for the reason you gave. (But I realize SO is different from, well, just about everybody else.)

When announcing the 15-minute delay for NAA flags before they enter the moderator queue (60 minutes on SO), Shog wrote:

This delay gives the community a chance to handle these flags first. If that doesn't happen, or if it can't happen, then it is made available to moderators for resolution. Keep in mind, not all posts can be processed via review, and when a post is processed through review but continues to garner flags the system reserves these for moderators. Therefore, when you do see these flags in the mod queue, you should handle them - it's unlikely anyone else will.

I don't personally agree with that on smaller sites, where we should IMO give the community a few hours, not a few minutes. But this is the official SE guidance.

So we shouldn't be waiting for the community to handle a flag; if mods see it, we're supposed to handle it. However, as a mod I still want to know if the flagged post is an accepted answer, because at least on my sites, we try to work a little harder to redeem accepted answers instead of just deleting them. That redemption can take time (get the community to try to improve a link-only answer, for instance), so I want to prioritize those in the queue the first time I see them -- and then ignore them for some period of time.

Showing that a flagged answer is accepted would help me better serve the communities I moderate, by making it easier for me to prioritize and track flags.

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  • I typically do handle flags as I see them, but it is somewhat daunting when we've got 1k+ flags in the queue and 300+ NAA/100+ VLQ could be processed by the community. I'd rather spend time on the stuff that we, in fact, need to process, accepted answer flags, custom flag, etc. This really is a way to possibly streamline our processing. I guess this might have more benefit to SO mods than to smaller sites.
    – Taryn
    Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 15:14
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    Well as I said, I agree with the proposal -- just for different reasons. (I don't know how you SO mods cope. On my sites a two-digit flag count at any given time is unusual, so we actually can try to guide people before just nuking their posts.)
    – Monica Cellio
    Commented Mar 16, 2015 at 15:32

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