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I'm reviewing the low quality posts list just now, and have noticed that an awful lot of the posts there are from experienced users - 13 of the 28 are from users with 20k (ish) or more rep.

Looking through these answers it appears that these answers are usually a single line of code to answer a simple question. In these cases it's likely that this is simply all that's necessary (as these experienced users well know).

So: Is it right that the low quality posts algorithm picks these up? - does it take into account user rep?

The alternative would seem that there is a problem with over simple answers from experienced users - in which case, how could this be addressed?

I appreciate that my look at this list just now doesn't make for a great sample size, but I have noticed it previously as well.

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Yes, it should pick up these answers. Just posting code isn't a "great" answer but it is acceptable enough that we can't really do anything about it. It's merely a precaution. If these users would take the time to explain what their code does, etc, then they wouldn't be appearing in the low quality posts area. They are low quality, but they're not actionable.

No, reputation is not and should not be considered. I still see posts on there from high reputation users who just post a link or use filter bypasses for short answers, and I flag them, as they should be flagged.

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I don't think that any automated "low quality" filter can be 100% accurate. I'm not sure that having the filter take reputation into account would be a good idea. It should judge quality just on the contents of the post.

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  • Yes - its not easy. I would say the difference would be that an experienced user knows that a on-liner is enough, whereas an inexperienced doesn't, and could be answering badly.
    – Jon Egerton
    Commented Dec 14, 2011 at 23:04
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I've often wondered this myself, and I actually stopped checking "low quality posts" because of this (first questions seems to always demand more attention, regardless).

Maybe a badge like Copy Editor (rather than reputation) could filter people out of this list? Maybe Marshal? None of these options really feel like a good solution, though, and it might just be best to leave the review interface the way it is.

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