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I upvoted this comment (of necessity, one made by someone else):

because at the time, it applied usefully to a comment by another user. The other user took a hint and deleted their comment, making this comment obsolete. However, I can't flag it as obsolete (or anything else) because I upvoted it.

Isn't that a bug of sorts? Comments can need flagging when circumstances change, even if you upvoted them before the circumstances changed?

I observe that the How do comment voting and flagging work? FAQ specifically states that you can't flag comments that you've upvoted or upvote comments that you've flagged (indeed, it says so twice), but there is no justification given for that design decision. And the proposal put forth by this question is 'that design decision should be revisited for the scenario where you first upvote and later need to flag a specific comment'. (The reverse direction — flag then upvote — doesn't give me cause for concern at the moment.)

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  • 2
    It's my understanding that it is acceptable to flag the question for moderator attention and tell them that some obsolete comments on the question need to be deleted, but I'm not 100% sure if that's the "correct protocol"
    – Dennis Meng
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 0:36
  • Thanks, @DennisMeng. For the time being, at least, I'm not going to flag the question, hoping someone from the SE team will at least consider this issue.
    – Jonathan Leffler
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 1:11
  • This would almost deserve another Q: Is there any difference between Q/A/C flags?. Maybe there's a duplicate and we don't need to ask.
    – brasofilo
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 1:15
  • Pretty sure this isn't a bug, but rather status by design. I do agree, though, there are circumstances that change which might require you to flag it. Just the other day I upvoted a comment, and it was edited within the 5min window to include a link to some spam website - I couldn't flag it nor could I retract my upvote; instead I had to flag the question.
    – Josh Crozier
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 1:34
  • 2
    As you have said, it's in the FAQ, clearly this is status-bydesign, not a bug. If you want it changed, that'd be a feature request.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 1:56
  • @Dennis Meng: It's completely acceptable. If there are way too many comments to flag we wouldn't want to inconvenience users into flagging each and every one of them.
    – BoltClock's a Unicorn Mod
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 8:53
  • 1
    Interesting to see two conflicting decisions on the same edit suggestion review!
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 2, 2013 at 18:21

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