10

Note: This is not the same as Make comment flags link to the comment, which is about the moderator tool. I am talking about the flag history page that is accessible through the user profile at https://example.stackexchange.com.invalid/users/flag-summary/USERID.

I tend to have a pretty good hit rate for flags, well above 90% helpful on several sites. I also semi-regularly review the flag history page, both to see the status of any outstanding flags as well as see how flags I raised have been handled. Particularly, whenever a flag of mine is declined, I look over the post I raised the flag against with this new information in mind, to try to determine if I should change my flagging behavior in some way to better match the specific site's scope.

However, comment flags are difficult in this regard. Most often, there is only a binary status: helpful or declined. Helpful comment flags nearly always lead to the comment being deleted, so that obviously could present a bit of a problem, but that's not really relevant because a helpful flag means you should just keep doing what you've been doing. Declined comment flags, on the other hand, usually mean the comment is kept. It's the declined comment flags that I want to learn more about. But there's no way to!

All the flag says is which post it was on, how I flagged a comment, that I was the one to raise the flag (which frankly is rather useless information when you are already looking at your own flags summary), when the flag was raised and whether it's pending, helpful or declined. In a very few cases the moderator handling the flag may leave a helpful return comment.

This can get even more confusing if I raise multiple flags in quick succession against comments on the same question including any answers to it, because they basically all get bundled together.

Even in the case of a declined flag where the comment remains, there is no way to find your way back to the specific comment you flagged! Thus it is very difficult to recognize the error of your ways. Because comment flags (with few exceptions) are handled by diamond moderators only, the lack of feedback about which comment's flag was declined means it's easy to keep wasting the moderators' time without even intending to do so.

Hence my feature request: add a link to the specific comment that the specific flag was raised against, ideally only if that comment remains.

1
  • 6.5 years later, still no way of knowing it... Dec 10, 2022 at 16:47

0

You must log in to answer this question.