14

I came across a historical locked question with bad tagging, and of course couldn't edit it. I was then going to flag it, but realized that there is no flag link either. I think we need the flag capability on historical locked questions, so that input can be given to the moderators on it if needed.

Improve this question
10
  • 1
    That's odd. I see a flag option underneath this locked question: stackoverflow.com/questions/1732348/… , but that may be because I'm a moderator. I do see flag options for locked questions on sites where I'm not, though. What does your interface look like for that question?
    – Brad Larson Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 14:40
  • 1
    @BradLarson, I do see it for that question, here's the one I don't see it for, stackoverflow.com/q/194812/13295.
    – Lance Roberts
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 14:49
  • Neither do I. This might be something localized to the circumstances of that question.
    – Brad Larson Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 14:50
  • 1
    @BradLarson I tried putting it in all sorts of different states (opened, closed, protected, etc.) and the flag link seems to always disappear on that question as soon as I put the lock back on.
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 14:52
  • 3
    It's a historical lock. You can't flag historical locks. That was part of the points of historical locks: there's no way to dispute anything about them.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:06
  • The other (non-historical) lock on @Brad's link is a "high amount of off-topic comments" lock. There's also a "locked while disputes are resolved" (deleted example). Historical locks seem to be the only type of lock that disallows flagging. See also Can't flag historically locked questions?
    – apsillers
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:10
  • 1
    @apsillers, that is a dupe of a sort, but about a specific instance. This is a feature-request to fix this. I'll edit in the information found about historical locks.
    – Lance Roberts
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:14
  • @LanceRoberts I agree -- I've removed the "duplicate" language in my comment. I assume the no-flag behavior on historically locked questions is to stop users from mindlessly flagging them as off-topic (since it is already known and accepted that they are off-topic). I'd guess the mods found the harm caused by disallowing flagging (i.e., you have to make a request on Meta) is rare a minor enough that it outweighed the extra volume of erroneous flags. There might be some sort of compromise possible here, but I'm not sure. Maybe only allow high-rep users to flag historical questions?
    – apsillers
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:19
  • Yeh, it seems like just allowing 20k+ would suffice (which wouldn't have helped me in this case, but is a reasonable compromise).
    – Lance Roberts
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 15:26
  • 4
    @Gilles: That seems short-sighted to me. The rules that govern what is on-/off-topic at SO have evolved greatly over the years. How can we know now that every historically locked question will never be on-topic again?
    – John Dibling
    Commented Aug 15, 2013 at 16:20

0

Reset to default

Browse other questions tagged .