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As I read this question I noticed two comments by a user, consisting only of a link to php-pages on a site that did not seem in anyway related to the question.

I flagged them as Other and stated why, but given the priority that spam flags are generally given, this seems like a loophole as the comments are still there one hour later.

Usually, this should not be a problem since commenting requires rep that spammers doesn't have. In the specific case, I'm thinking something is odd since I didn't get a rep tool-tip when hovering the username and couldn't click to go to a user page. So how could the user leave a comment to begin with?

EDIT: The comments have now been deleted, and AsheeshR's answer below is certainly valid. The pragmatic solution could perhaps be to update the "Rude or offensive"-option to "Rude, offensive or spam"?

Screenshot of the deleted comments:

The deleted comments

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    The user account has probably been destroyed already because of other spam posts. Hence, no link.
    – asheeshr
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:09
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    Incidentally; I deleted those comments upon seeing this question linking to them.
    – Andrew Barber
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:32
  • @AndrewBarber Are rude/offensive flags given the same high priority as spam is on regular Q/As?
    – user213634
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:40
  • I am not sure about the priority, but comment flags work similarly to spam flags. Enough flags, comment gets auto deleted.
    – asheeshr
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:42
  • @AndersUP Not exactly; They are not highlighted in red at the top of our flags page, but comments are separated by type, and I know I often go check out Rude/Offensive comment flags relatively quickly
    – Andrew Barber
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:44
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    @AsheeshR It can only happen this way on Meta Stack Exchange, where anyone can comment. All other sites require a minimum reputation to participate (other metas require 5 rep to participate, and non-meta sites require 50 rep to comment), so the spammer would have to make some positive contribution first.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Aug 12, 2013 at 18:05
  • @Gilles Ahh! That makes sense. I didnt notice the different rep limit here.
    – asheeshr
    Aug 14, 2013 at 14:53

1 Answer 1

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I flagged them as Other and stated why, but given the priority that spam flags are generally given, this seems like a loophole as the comments are still there one hour later.

Comments are second class citizens, hence their overall impact on MSO is minimal. In fact, this is the first time I have seen it happen.

I dont believe that there are enough of such posts across sites or the network to warrant a specific addition to the flag mechanism.

In the specific case, I'm thinking something is odd since I didn't get a rep tool-tip when hovering the username and couldn't click to go to a user page. So how could the user leave a comment to begin with?

The most probable reason is that the user account has already been destroyed(deleted) because of other spam posts across the network or on meta.

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  • I initally tagged my question as feature-request but changed it to discussion for those reasons you give above. I'm thinking it's still worth the consideration given that even if comments are second class, spam is top priority - and perhaps it exposed a bug in the user destruction scripts.
    – user213634
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:24
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    @AndersUP I agree that spam needs to be dealt with quickly. But, this specific edge case is not enough to warrant a change. You need to put a stronger case and/or more examples or wait for others to add some.
    – asheeshr
    Aug 12, 2013 at 16:31

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