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I saw a bad answer here.

I understand why, as a new user, I can't do certain things like comment. But reporting is something I should be able to do. What reason is there for limiting new users from reporting bad answers, like this one?

Edit: Just as I posted this, someone deleted the bad answer. My question still stands, however.

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    You need 15 reputation to flag. We can't assume that everyone with less of that knows what good and bad content is. – rene Jul 23 '19 at 13:41
  • related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/228288/… – rene Jul 23 '19 at 13:47
  • Alright. Though, why didn't you post this as an answer? I could mark this answered if you had. – udlp Jul 23 '19 at 13:55
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    Because it is not really answering why that is so. – rene Jul 23 '19 at 13:56
  • Looks like a mod picked up on it ;) – Journeyman Geek♦ Jul 23 '19 at 14:16
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Flagging requires reputation because we do not want every newly registered user to be able to flag. As @rene says, it takes a while to know what needs to be flagged and what not (even 15 reputation is rather low). Lowering the reputation threshold will make reporting easier but lead to more noise, which makes flag handling (by the community in the review queues, and by ♦ moderators) a lot less efficient.

Note that an exception has been made (as part of the Welcoming initiative) for flagging comments on your own posts; for that, no reputation is required. If you're feeling harassed, which hopefully doesn't come up too often, you should be able to do something about it (other than replying, which often makes matters worse). Another exception is flagging your own post, e.g. when it was deleted and you've edited into better shape. You can then use a flag to ask the ♦ moderators to undelete it.

In your case, on another person's question, there's not much you can do about it without a bit of reputation. But don't worry; we have a lot of active users who will notice it too, and know how to use their flags.

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