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My flag history on Android Enthusiasts shows that I flagged (during review) this question: https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/109213/on-my-yureka-devive-on-kitkat-version-the-playstore-is-not-working (Now on hold but not when I posted this question) as Very Low Quality (VLQ).

See screenshot:

VLQ

However, visiting the question and checking the flag types available for the Question and the available Answers didn't reveal that I already flagged this Question, or the Answers there as VLQ.

What I mean is, irrespective of whether a VLQ flag is pending, or resolved as helpful or declined, I should be able to see a colored warning "you have already raised this type of flag" (below the flag type) after I click Flag option on the Question again. But VLQ is not visible, making the flag impossible to trace. (Note that the question wasn't ever upvoted.)

The VLQ option ideally should be visible but look like:

Flag example

Screenshots (before on hold) for every item on this page:

  • No indication on Question (VLQ isn't even visible, let alone a warning given here)

    No flag on question

  • No indication on this answer

    no flag on answer 109221

  • No indication on this answer as well

    no flag on answer 109214

What should be visible when the VLQ flag is pending?

In order to crosscheck this issue I randomly raised few VLQ flags on other SE sites to see what gets shown during the flag is pending, and when it receives the status as helpful, or declined.

Here is the deal:

  • I raised VLQ flag on this question and this one. Both were marked as helpful, (no close/on-hold action were taken; obvious here). The flag options for the former when it was pending, as well as after it was marked as helpful, looked like:

    19922 flag status

  • In contrast, even when a flag was resolved as declined on an another question, I still could saw the warning:

    Declined

When is the VLQ flag not visible?

I looked at some Meta.SE posts and came across this answer:

"Very Low Quality" is available on posts scoring 0 or less.

The intention with this flag is to communicate to the mods that a bit of content is so bad, it can not be salvaged by editing and needs to be removed. Clearly such questions should be closed and answers downvoted.

This answer and this one also share the same view.

On the other hand, this question(-1, at the time of writing; would be on-hold later for being off-topic) doesn't have a VLQ option available.

Anomaly

It is another matter that VLQ was unavailable for questions (on other SE sites) having -5/-6 or more downvotes. But I assume the reason is pretty obvious.

Back to the beginning

The VLQ flag was pending for this question, as visible in the screenshot, and the vote count was 0, so the VLQ flag type with that warning should have been visible to me! But it was not as if it was an upvoted question. Why so?

Addressing Comment

Moderator eldarerathis ♦ speculated that, because the ultimate goal is not to allow the user to use the same flag twice, it may very well be possible that the system hid that VLQ option to achieve the goal.

That may be true, but it then implies to me that there would be different settings applied for Android Enthusiasts while Super User, Web Apps and Software Recs (where I experimented) share common settings.

tl;dr

My goal was and still is, not to flag twice on same type but to trace the pending VLQ flag back to the original question. I'm unable to find any meta post regarding this different VLQ flag setting on Android Enthusiasts. Hence, I request the Community to let me know:

  • Why couldn't I see the VLQ option?
  • The documentation (if it exists) regarding this unique flag setting.

Note: I apologize to all those users who had to review those deliberate and random VLQ flags (9 in total) on Super User, Web Apps, and Software Recs. I understand it is a bad behavior on my part but I had no other choice to present a solid case at first. Please excuse my actions (it in turn affected my profile as well).

Improve this question
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  • 1
    If you try to flag it again, you'll get a note that you've already flagged it (but AFAIR not how). I've upvoted your question as that confuses me as well from time to time. Especially that I can only find out that I've flagged a post, but not how – and that this is not intuitive either.
    – Izzy
    Jun 3, 2015 at 10:24
  • @Izzy Yes, you're correct that if I try to flag it again the system will show me the warning (about questions here). But I also noticed that I get to see the warning if only the flag is pending or is declined. Also, if in need of moderator intervention is used then irrespective of helpful or declined status, you don't get to see the warning in future.
    – 286110
    Jun 3, 2015 at 10:38
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    Maybe that's an issue to be raised at Meta.SE (affecting all SE sites) to get "straightened out"? IMHO this should be aligned with how VTC works, where you get to see how you voted directly when you push the "close" link again. I also vaguely remember having had issues with flagging a post twice (second time for a different reason), but cannot remember the exact circumstances.
    – Izzy
    Jun 3, 2015 at 10:50
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    I think this is an inconsistency in the flagging UI. You've indeed raised a flag on that question, and what appears may happen is that if you use the VLQ flag reason on a question, then it will simply be removed from the flag dialog if you attempt to flag it again at a later point. It may also be related to the current status of the flag, but I don't have a good way to test that at the moment. This obviously differs from the screenshot for the answer you flagged, but I suppose it accomplishes the same goal: it prevents you from raising the same flag twice on a single question.
    – eldarerathis
    Jun 3, 2015 at 13:55
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    Having said that, it could be a bug. I'm not really sure. Meta Stack Exchange may actually be a better venue for this discussion because the SE staff are more likely to respond there in a timely fashion (and this is probably network-wide).
    – eldarerathis
    Jun 3, 2015 at 14:06
  • I feel that the title of this question doesn't match the body, but I confess I remain unable to establish what the body is trying to demonstrate to me, so I can't edit the title. I think the question has to do with a pending flag (but the title refers to a helpful one) and not being able to flag twice but not getting told that early enough? If so, perhaps the title should be "Why can't I see that I have a pending flag on a question's page?" or something like that.
    – Kate Gregory
    Jun 4, 2015 at 20:03
  • @KateGregory Thank you very much for this valuable suggestion. I corrected the title and few parts in the body. I missed "helpful flag history" and wrote "helpful flag" in title which ultimately created this confusion. Also, my goal isn't really about flagging it twice (it would be insensible really), but the reasoning behind this odd setting on Android Enthusiast while SE sites doesn't do that.
    – 286110
    Jun 4, 2015 at 20:26

1 Answer 1

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+50

Why couldn't I see the VLQ option?

You quoted from this answer which mentions that the option is shown for 0 and negative score. What you missed is, there's another condition that this option will not be shown: when the question is undergoing close review.

Very Low Quality won't be available for questions that are currently undergoing Close review either.

So, the timeline is more-or-less like this:

  1. You flagged the question as VLQ
  2. Someone on VLQ review queue voted to close the question
  3. The question entered close review queue, removing the option to flag as VLQ
  4. You checked the pending flag on the question (before June 3, 3:31 UTC)
  5. The question is closed (at June 3, 16:21 UTC)

Also, just to clarify, the flag is only applied to a particular post. When you flag a question, you only flag the question but not its answers. That explains why you don't see pending VLQ flag on the answers.

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    +1. There is a comment stating that "[+15 users] can open flag dialog and, if it lacks VLQ option, this would indicate that question is (was) under review." But the indication possibly will be observed by those who are aware of Shog9's answer or the close review queues. Shouldn't there be a different marking in flag that the item is under a close review or something? If not, then at least flag history could show that it's not just pending but under a close review queue. The flag is always confusing for a user unknown to triage (I've heard it first time now). Anyhow, thanks for the explanation.
    – 286110
    Jun 8, 2015 at 3:17
  • I agree with you, new users who don't know about review queue yet will be confused. Btw, triage is only available on Stack Overflow, but for the rest, it is applied to close review on all sites. If you want, you can post a feature-request to show pending flag indicator on the flag dialog when VLQ option is hidden (or alternatively, your idea from your comment).
    – Meta Andrew T.
    Jun 8, 2015 at 3:26

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