When are moderator flags automatically dismissed as "aged away" by the system?

Question

Moderator flags can be dismissed as aged away.

• What does this dismiss reason mean?
• What causes flags to be dismissed with this reason?
• Do aged away flags affect my daily flag amount?
• Can I cast a flag again if it gets marked aged away?

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Answer 1

What does this dismiss reason mean?

Certain moderator flags are invalidated by age. This prevents flags from accruing over time and allowing actions that the greater community in general doesn't want.

When a flag is aged like this, you see "aged away" for the flag reason (previously, it was "scheduledtaskinvalidated").

What causes flags to be dismissed with this reason?

The checks are performed once a day. The rules have changed over time, but currently they are:

Recommend closure flags on questions

These follow the normal rules for close vote aging:

• For flags to migrate a question: when the question becomes ineligible for migration, which is when the question is 60 days old

• The oldest recommend closure flag, once per day, at the following times:

  • 4 days after the last close vote if the question has 100+ views
  • 14 days after the last close vote if the question has fewer than 100 views

Note: If a flag gets invalidated in close vote review by three "leave open" reviews, it will be marked declined instead.

Do aged away flags affect my daily flag amount?

No. Aged away flags do not count positively or negatively toward your total count of net helpful flags for the purposes of your daily flag limit, and are not counted when calculating the percentage of flags handled in the last seven days for flag bans.

Can I cast a flag again if it gets marked aged away?

Only in one case: in the case of recommend closure flags, if it's been more than 14 days after your previous flag got marked aged away. There are two exceptions:

• Flags to migrate a question cannot be cast once the question turns 60 days old. This means that if you cast a recommend closure flag for migration and the flag aged away as a result of the question becoming 60 days old or under the other rules when the question was 46 or more days old, you cannot recast your flag (though in the latter case, you may cast a recommend closure flag for a different reason).
• If you cast your flag before the status of aged close votes and close flags began to be tracked sometime in 2012, you will not be able to recast your flag. Source

Also, in the past, spam and rude or abusive flags on posts and "harassment, bigotry, or abuse" flags on comments aged away after some time, and such aged away flags cannot be recast.

In any case, if the problem still remains after a flag was marked aged away, and you cannot recast your flag at all under the rules above even after a waiting period, flag the post or comment using the "in need of moderator intervention" flag and provide an explanation.