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A few times, I've noticed that certain bug reports and feature requests end up being tagged as , but the thing they're requesting (or an acceptable alternate solution) isn't actually implemented.

As an example, this question was reporting an issue about the 10k tools, about the fact that posts from accounts that are later deleted don't show up in the "Recently Deleted" section of the deleted posts tool. The developer answering the question mistook the report as being about a completely different page (the "Recently deleted [questions/answers]" in the author's profile), answered based on that, and tagged the report as completed. The actual request in the question still continues to be an issue, despite the tagging.

There's also this other question of mine, which reported an issue about a specific class of questions, and provided an example: the report was tagged after the issue was manually worked around for the one example I cited, but it wasn't overall fixed. (It's worth noting that later changes made to the system make the request more relevant today.)

I'm aware that in case of issue reports that are actually fixed, but later arise again, I should file a new report about the regression. I'm also aware that I can file a reconsideration request to request attention for a prior request that was declined. However, in the cases I'm referring to here, the requests were never implemented, and they weren't declined either.

What can I do if a Meta request is tagged , but I believe the tag is incorrect, as the actual request (or an alternate solution) was never implemented, in order to get attention for it and get it actually implemented?

  • Should I flag the question with a custom moderator flag (e.g. "this was never actually fixed, pls remove status-completed tag kthx")?
  • Should I submit the feature request or bug again, as a new question?
  • Should I post a question specifically asking for removal of the tag from the old question?
  • Should I use the company Contact link at the bottom of the page and ask for tag removal?
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  • 2
    Curious... what is wrong with saying, "this isn't actually correct/fixed" or "it seems like your answer is about another problem, not this one"?
    – Catija
    Jun 4, 2020 at 23:54
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    @Catija Because it hasn't worked. In the case of my question (the second link), I edited the question to say so and commented on the answer, and neither resulted in any action. Regarding the first link, it wasn't my post, but others did leave comments on Yaakov's answer, and I also pinged him in chat, but those didn't result in any action either.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Jun 5, 2020 at 0:00
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    How about posting a new question, tagging it with regression (for bugs), and indicating why it wasn't fixed, or what still needs to be fixed?
    – Luuklag
    Jun 5, 2020 at 7:56
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    @Luuklag Because that tag, as it's excerpt says, is only for bug reports that have been fixed, but have later come up again. Also, simply copying another request may not be preferred.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Jun 5, 2020 at 7:58

1 Answer 1

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You should comment to let the staff member know that there is a problem and explain the situation. If the question is unclear, edit it to make it more clear - for example, add links or additional information.

You've got two very different situations here.

  1. A time when a dev was clearly mistaken about what page the question was about. There's no comments there telling him that the answer is wrong or pointing out that he's talking about a different page.
  2. A time where a specific instance was fixed, a discussion was had in comments and the end result was a clear disagreement between the staff member and you but it seems clear that the status is intentional.

In the case of the former, leave a comment on the answer! A comment in chat is not going to persist for others to see there's a problem with the answer. Particularly as time passed and it became clear that the issue had been dropped or forgotten. Even in chat Yaakov admitted that he realized afterwards that the answer was wrong. He should have deleted the answer and removed the status tag. I'm not sure why he didn't.

In the case of the latter, at some point you're going to have to accept that, no matter how much you disagree, you have to let it go. If someone seems to clearly understand the problem but disagrees that it's something that should be fixed or says that it's by design after a discussion about it - then drop it and move on. I'm sorry... this may be hard to hear... but some edge cases aren't going to have agreement about how they should be treated.

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    In the first case, others had already left comments asking them if they intended to address the thing given in the question, but there was still no response. Also, in the general case, what should I do if I do leave a comment as you specify, but it still doesn't result in a response?
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Jun 5, 2020 at 19:43
  • This doesn't work if the responder no longer works for Stack Exchange.
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Apr 30, 2022 at 21:01

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