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See also: What is an acceptable answer?
The "not an answer" flag is a moderator flag that users can raise to notify moderators and privileged users1 that a posted answer does not make an attempt to answer the question, and should be deleted.
Use this flag when an answer is:
Do not use this flag when:
If it seems blatantly obvious to you that what you're looking at isn't an answer, you're probably using the flag correctly.
If the problem is subtle and may not be obvious to whoever reviews your flag, then raise the "in need of moderator intervention" flag instead, and explain in detail why you think the answer violates the site rules and should thus be removed.
First, verify that the problem wasn't corrected after you raised the flag. If the author or someone else was able to edit the answer and fix the problem, then you did nothing wrong; the problem was simply not visible anymore at the time the flag was handled.
If the problem is still visible, then consider that perhaps it isn't as obvious as you thought it was. When reviewing "not an answer" flags, moderators aren't shown the question or comments in context without clicking further, which they probably won't do unless there's an obvious reason to look for additional context. The same applies to flags handled in the review queues for privileged users1, which requires reviewers to scroll or click through to view the question or other answers.
As suggested above, subtle problems can be more effectively handled by raising an "in need of moderator intervention" flag, which allows you to explain the problem in detail. If a "not an answer" flag is declined or disputed and a serious problem is still evident, then escalate the issue to the moderator team with a detailed description.
There are four possible cases:
In the first and last cases above, a moderator will have already seen or will see the situation and has already or will soon handle it. In other cases, if the problem wasn't fixed, flag the answer using the "in need of moderator intervention" option and clearly explain the issue.
You can see which situation of the above happened by clicking through to the post's timeline, which will link to the community reviews (if any) the answer went through, as well as show its deletion history. If there's no entry for a community review, the flag was processed manually by a moderator.
1 The "not an answer" flag will trigger the answer to be reviewed by members of the site with editing privileges via the Low quality posts review queue (Low quality answers on Stack Overflow) if the answer has never been to that queue before. If the answer ends up in this queue, the flag will still be able to be processed by moderators after a delay that varies per site (15 minutes on most main Q&A sites, 60 minutes on some large sites including Stack Overflow, and no delay on meta sites). If the answer has already been reviewed in that queue before, this flag can only be handled by moderators.
The not an answer flag (NAA) is a flag to indicate that someone used the "answer the question" box to post something that isn't really an answer. It usually pushes an answer to the low-quality queue, where its fate is decided by reviewers. If it stays there for too long, the answer is also shown to diamond moderators in their flag queue. If the flag is considered valid, the post is deleted.
Use this flag when an answer is being used to:
You can also use this flag for the following reasons, if you include a comment below the answer explaining the specific problem:
link-only answers, i.e., answers that become totally worthless when you remove all URLs. Note that a short answer that mostly is a link can still be an answer, if the actual text is useful; it usually is a bad answer though. For example, the following can still be an answer (to the right question):
Consider the
blobfishmodule. It solves the problem you're describing.
The following is a link-only answer:
Take a look at https://example.com/cgi-bin/docs/html/blobf.html
answers that attempt to answer another question or are just a general dump of unsolicited information, for example:
Question: What is the capital of Brazil?
Not an answer 1: The capital of Argentina is Buenos Aires.
Not an answer 2: Brazil is a state in South America.
Not an answer 3: We went to Brazil for our honeymoon.
obviously dishonest answers to the question. Most of these are also not nice and should thus be flagged as rude or abusive or with a custom flag. But sometimes they are just a well-intentioned, but bad joke, e.g.:
Question: What’s the difference between affect and effect?
Answer: The first letter.
answers violating site-specific requirements on answers. A typical example are sites requiring answers (or answers to certain questions) to be backed up with sources. In that case, unsourced answers can be regarded as not an answer. You can see it this way: On such sites, the request for sources is implicit in every question and thus unsourced answers do not address the question. Be sure to familiarise with a site’s specific guidelines before using the flag this way.
If you can’t determine whether or not it’s an answer without looking at the question it supposedly answers, explain the problem in a comment below the answer.
If you need knowledge that goes deeper than a basic expertise of the site’s topic (e.g., knowledge of a specific programming language on SO) don't use an NAA flag.
Do not use the not an answer flag for:
partial or short answers. If an answer addresses the question and is at least one small step forward regarding the problem at hand (and more than a link), it’s not NAA. Don’t listen to people who claim that these should be comments. The fundamental distinction between answers and comments is that the former seek to address the question and the latter try to improve the question – not length.
wrong answers. Downvote them and use comments to explain what is wrong. The NAA flag is for answers that are not even wrong, i.e., they do not even live on the right–wrong axis (for the respective question).
plagiarism. Answers which are just verbatim copies of previously existing answers, or other sources, without attribution should be flagged with a custom moderator flag and the situation explained, including a link to where you think the copy was made from.
duplicate answers. Answers added which only repeat a point made in a long-existing answer without adding anything worthwhile to it should be flagged with a custom moderator flag which explains the issue and links to the answer which you feel is the source. This almost only applies to short answers which show an egregious lack of awareness of previous answers. Longer answers often offer a different explanation or presentation of the facts which is worthwhile. Answers which were posted only minutes apart are not flaggable merely because they cover the same points. Such an answer may be flaggable if there is clear plagiarism (i.e. it's a direct copy and paste with, at most, minimal differences).
spam, rude, or abusive posts. Use the respective flag instead, as it ensures a quick and proper handling. Note that gibberish can be flagged as abusive when the author has no other positive contributions to the site, but the benefit of doubt should be granted to users who have other positive contributions (i.e. flag gibberish from such accounts as NAA, unless such posts are repeated).
how to use the NaA flag/how the NaA flag should be used.
Mar 15, 2017 at 12:26