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If a flag is marked invalid by another user and found helpful by a moderator, the “invalid flag” flag is marked as helpful and is reflected as such in the user’s helpful flag count. If the flag is declined, both flags are marked as “disputed” — even if the flag was declined with a message (in the flags overview, “no action needed” dismisses a disputed flag without a message).

This seems backwards. The more things you wrongly flag as invalid, the more helpful flags (and I’m assuming flag weight) you get. People have also already been confused over the “disputed” result when they flag something as invalid.

Gaming the system like that is easy, too. Flag every flag you can get your hands on as invalid, and most of them will be helpful and none of them will be able to actually be declined. You could have the most helpful flags of any suspended user, possibly!

(That brings me to the other thing — why is there a penalty if a moderator declines a flag, but no penalty if two or more people, including a moderator, decline a flag? Doesn’t that mean it’s worse?)

Please make it possible to decline these and fix the result for invalid flags.

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  • 1
    Wait, seriously? I thought they were always marked disputed. Oh crap.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn
    Sep 14, 2013 at 14:32
  • @BoltClock'saUnicorn: Seriously — I knew they looked “helpful“ if they were actioned, but I just tried it out and it also increases the counter.
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 14:35
  • 1
    I've a previous feature request to fix the fundamentally broken way the feedback for disputed flags work. I think your case is a different broken aspect of it, but I'm rather confused on how the whole stuff works since the flag refactoring.
    – Mad Scientist
    Sep 14, 2013 at 14:44
  • For the "other thing", I have already brought it up
    – Manishearth
    Sep 14, 2013 at 14:49
  • I must apologize. I would have expected disputed (not helpful) in each case and was of the opinion that the two issues were flagged due to a misunderstanding, which I have tried to dispel. I will now retire from the 10k tools. Sorry for all the trouble I caused.
    – bummi
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:03
  • @bummi: Trouble? I needed to make sure, so thank you :D
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:06
  • to make sure the issues, the handling of the flags or my retire. I'd appreciate an open answer. Thank you.
    – bummi
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:12
  • Related: How can an “invalid flags” flag be deemed helpful? - From what I can tell, only auto-dismissal by doing something to the post will cause the flags to be marked as helpful - but that's pretty much always, no?
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:31
  • @bummi: How invalid flags were handled? You’re not doing anything particularly wrong…
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:33
  • @animuson: Or if you pick “no action” with “helpful” in the mod bar, yes. (It’s not a duplicate because I know why :P)
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 15:34
  • possible duplicate of Why do "Invalid Flag" flags get disputed?
    – Madara's Ghost
    Sep 14, 2013 at 19:11
  • @MadaraUchiha: That’s a side complaint.
    – Ry-
    Sep 14, 2013 at 20:16
  • @MadaraUchiha No, this question is talking about how sometimes they can be helpful but never declined.
    – Doorknob
    Sep 14, 2013 at 20:19
  • @minitech: Nope, only auto-dismissal. In the main mod screen, "no further action" doesn't have a separate popup, but I tried going to the post itself and manually selecting helpful - still dismissed them both as disputed. So the problem is just that letting the system auto-dismiss them by deleting the post doesn't check for the "invalid flags" flag and just dismisses everything as helpful.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Sep 15, 2013 at 15:45
  • 1
    Invalid flags are going the way of the dodo with the demise of the 10k flag queue, so this is no longer an issue. (Don't you just love it when that happens? ;))
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Apr 30, 2014 at 23:23

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