7

Regarding this post.

The system says it is low quality, and though I don't have anything particular against one-liners, in this case, the other answer on the question is clearly way more helpful, has upvotes and ticks, and this post has no upvotes, so deleting it isn't even going to 'harm' the author.

First question: would you recommend deletion too?

None of the canned comments really seem to express what's going on, there isn't really a generic 'low quality' comment in there. Especially not a 'too short' one, which is what most of the posts I've reviewed so far seem to have against them.

Second question: In this case, I've selected no comment. But do you think there needs to be a comment to cover this case, or is 'shortness' an insufficient metric of low quality?

Improve this question
0

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
6

What I would usually do with a new answer like this is leave a comment requesting the user fleshes out his one liner with a bit of usage info, perhaps an example of a command to do what was requested.

If they don't improve the answer, I'd delete in a later review pass.

In this particular case, as the answer is over a year old, if I was feeling generous I'd expand the answer myself, otherwise I'd just delete.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    So how exactly do you manage the list of items you need to check on a later review pass?
    – Jacob Schoen
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 21:21
  • The flags/review list on Sec.SE isn't too unmanageable yet so it is relatively straightforward to remember. For some I leave a flag to myself to remind me.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 22:39
  • While that I could see that working for those with enough rep, that would not work for myself as I have not even broke 3000 yet. So I can review things, but I can not see any kind of flag queue. So what would you recommend for the rest of us.
    – Jacob Schoen
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 2:48
  • Just use the not sure button, and leave for someone else. That's probably the simplest way :-)
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Aug 17, 2012 at 7:59
6

I don't really see a need to delete it. Deletion should be for things that don't actually answer the question ("Thank you"s, "I have a similar question," and the like). The correct solution is to down-vote it.

Improve this answer
2
  • and "Thank you"s don't necessarily need to be deleted either, but possibly converted to comments
    – Daniel DiPaolo
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 21:18
  • 5
    @DanielDiPaolo No, a 'thank you' should just be deleted, not be a comment.
    – Servy
    Commented Aug 16, 2012 at 21:21
4

Looking at this answer it seems to me that it should have been a comment. It's not actually answering the question, it's giving a "hint" or "point in the right direction" which is a perfectly acceptable comment, and not really an answer.

Therefore I would use the "This is a comment, not an answer" deletion comment.

Improve this answer
3

In cases like this, I look at the timestamps of the answers:

  • Answers the question and was posted before or around same time as other good answers: 'Looks Good', or edit if there are spelling or grammar issues (I don't expand on it or do substantial changes)

  • Less detail and subset of existing answer and posted several hours+ after it: Deletion with 'upvote instead' comment

  • Less detail but not subset of previous answers (adds a new method or data point): 'Looks Good'

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .