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I just noticed that one off-topic flag on a question on Skeptics was dismissed by community, but there is no obvious reason why that should have happened. The only case I know of that causes off-topic flags to be dismissed automatically is when the question is closed. That wasn't the case here, the question was still open when I saw it (though I closed it now).

The flag history shows that the flag was dismissed by community:

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I see no reason for community to dismiss these flags and it should stop doing that as this hides actual problems from us moderators.

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    It's not dismissed by just any close vote?
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:03
  • Does automatic dismissal for a closure include information in the Deletion Date and Result Columns?
    – yoozer8
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:09
  • retagging as feature request since as a bug it's by-design, but the question has some merit
    – Sklivvz
    Commented Mar 28, 2013 at 8:56

1 Answer 1

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It got dismissed when one of the non-moderator close votes was cast.

At that point the question enters the Close Votes review queue and there's no need for a moderator flag on it. This is no longer an exceptional situation that requires moderator attention.

I can see that being potentially problematic on smaller sites, but moderators can see the queue just as well as anyone else. If there are no flags for them to handle and they feel like checking on it, that can only be a good thing anyway. And if there are many flags that need attention, taking some pressure off the moderators and enabling the community to handle these cases still sounds like a win.

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    The review queues are annoying as a mod as I can't skip without hiding items later, I tend to avoid them for that reason on sites where I'm a mod. And I'm not sure if the review queues can replace mods on smaller sites, I just checked and nobody had a look in the close queue on Skeptics today. I would prefer if those flags weren't dismissed, though it certainly makes sense on large sites.
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:18
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    @MadScientist I'd personally rather allow mods to be able to cycles through questions under review without completely hiding them.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:19
  • @AnnaLear I'm not sure the same thing happened here, but if it did, it shouldn't had, both flags were custom flags. The deletion didn't have anything to do with the flags being dismissed, I deleted the question afterwards (it had already been cross posted by the time I saw it). Also, why is a 10K+ user listed as the deletion user? Aren't custom flags mod only?
    – yannis
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:25
  • @Yannis Ugh. Yeah, I don't think we should be dismissing custom flags. If that hasn't been reported already (pretty sure it has), that'd be a bug report I could get behind.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:27
  • @AnnaLear That has been reported already I think, and I agree that custom flags should never be dismissed automatically.
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:31
  • @AnnaLear The weird part is that it lists a 10K user as the deletion user and not Community. Could this be a different bug all together?
    – yannis
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:34
  • @Yannis the last user who cast the vote is the deletion user, it doesn't make any sense but that has been like this forever I think
    – Mad Scientist
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:39
  • @MadScientist That's probably it. Anna: Don't auto dismiss custom flags on close.
    – yannis
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 19:49

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