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Recently I got aware of the flag weight counter in the profile page.

Lurking here on meta led to a couple of threads arguing about the cap and the algorithm behind the value.

However, personally I'd like to have a feedback of which flag got accepted and which didn't: if I raise more than one flag in a day (or forgot to keep an eye the counter) I can't learn what I screwed up.

I don't really care to have a score or to have moderators leave a feedback on my flags (as Justin Dearing suggests regarding "moderator attention"), but I would find useful a simple list of my flags and their outcome ("Accepted" / "Rejected").

Just to give a rejected flags a second thought and maybe understand why it has been considered "wrong" and don't do the same error again.

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  • I've had this thought before, myself. But I've never suggested it, because it's really just too much data.
    – Pops
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 19:04
  • @Popular Demand: Really? Isn't it the same as the already existing "Stats", "Activity" or "Favorites" tab in my profile? Would it be such a mess to add it as a new tab? :\
    – Albireo
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 19:09
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    Those tabs are all about questions. Questions and answers are first class content; flags aren't. I could see wanting help with a pattern of rejection, but flag weight shows that, roughly. Individual flag-by-flag detail just feels like overkill to me.
    – Pops
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 19:16
  • How about leaving processed flags in /tools/flagged as accepted or rejected? The users most likely to be interested in flagging information probably have enough rep to have access to that page. Also, it's probably interesting to those who process the flags to see trends. Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 20:27
  • @reemrevnivek The items in /tools/flagged are comment flags and spam/offensive flags, not moderator flags. Those don't have the same dismissal system as the latter - in fact, the only option other than dismising as invalid is to just outright delete the post or comment. In most scenarios, these are just let to either decay or accumulate enough community flags.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Mar 7, 2011 at 20:36

1 Answer 1

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It's a simple idea, and I think it's something that is useful. It can be a lot of extra work, though, keep in mind.

Sometimes people trip up. They may otherwise make a lot of great flags, but then make one mistake that we need to dismiss as invalid. This is fairly fine, and really doesn't need to be reported or dwelled on. It's not particularly condemning if you make a bad flag once or twice, as long as you don't develop a habit or get comfortable doing it.

Also keep in mind that if possible, a moderator may comment on the post to address the course of action if doing so would not betray the trust in privacy of the flag. This can handle a lot of one-time mistakes that a new flagger may run into.

This is what makes your proposal tiresome to implement, take into account that we may yet dismiss such one-time flags as valid. It may be because we saw something else as a problem, or maybe we think that others may make the same misconception. Whatever the scenario is, the flag led to action, regardless of whether it was the action intended by the flagger. So, to properly know what is good flagging, haha, not even the exactness of valid/invalid dismissal will give you an accurate reading.

To that end, proper feedback would entail writing a response for every single flag that comes in. Addressing all but the most basic of flags is rarely black-and-white. Considering I see some Stack Overflow mods clamoring at the thought of automated comments for deletion or other warnings... well, I can't speak for them in the end. But they have a much greater volume of flags than any of the other sites have to deal with. That's a lot of writing back to be done.

Feedback remains important, but I think the real important thing is to notice when someone is actually making some kind of trend of bad flagging. Words will tell you what's going on a lot better than the dismissal stats will, and I think the words are more valuable and more likely to get accurate readings when they're analyzing something other than a one-time trip.

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  • 3
    you wrote: "To that end, proper feedback would entail writing a response for every single flag that comes in." I don't think we need to go that far though. As long as I can see whether or not something has happened as a result of the flag, that gives some feedback on whether the flag was good or not. A simple list of my flags with the result would allow me to go to the posts and look at the outcome, which would help me make better flag choices in the future.
    – dave.c
    Commented Mar 16, 2011 at 13:17
  • "as long as you don't develop a habit" If you don't get any feedback, you will never have any reason to change. Ergo: habit.
    – A.M.
    Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 13:39

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