To flag or not to flag and a request for auditing

Question

This describes flag weight
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/80170/what-is-flag-weight (10k+ link)

There is a link to an answer (from Marc Gravell) from another question
Are the new moderator flag limits sufficiently high?

My question (or request):

We have a reputation audit now, /reputation
Can we have a flag audit, /flag or some such?

• "If your flag weight is low you can quickly recover it simply by flagging sensibly" (link2)
• "you should pay close attention to whether or not you are using flags correctly" (link1)

Sure, sure - but can you tell me where I went wrong?

I don't believe I flag all that often (subjective), but I'm sitting on 25 and can't figure out why.

Where are the rules or guidelines for "good flagging"? Somewhere in the FAQ it says (paraphrasing*), "if you think a moderator should look at it, flag it". Okay sure, let's to that if it may be offensive (e.g. politically incorrect word used), tangential to question (private off-topic or off-color debate) etc.

Are flag weights decreased just because ♦'s have looked at it and click on some button/link to say - ignore/delete? Wouldn't most things simply get ignored?

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Okay I checked the FAQ

What if I see bad things happening?

Please use our flagging system to let us know about it. Each comment has a small flag icon, and every post has a flag menu at the bottom. Take advantage of it! We actively moderate our community, but we need your help to do so. Anything that is getting consistently flagged by our community members will be investigated and followed up on. And of course you can always email us directly if you feel the matter is urgent.

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Disclosure

Well recently I came across someone who seemed to be asking questions for the sake of asking only; that, or the questions would be as a series, low quality. Is it clear cut? No. Do I suspect it - yes. So I flagged 2 very close variations of the same question among at least 4. So my interpretation of what jinguy is saying below is - don't flag it, which reduces flags from everyone, which... wait. Why are we flagging again? I thought that was the reason for this clause in the FAQ "getting consistently flagged by our community members" - let the count(flag) against a post indicate the validity.

I understand the positive reinforcement of astute flaggers, but negative weights? Not all people are created equally, not all moderators are created equally. To reach 25 from default 100 within a couple of days of introduction (or is this retrospective?) would require

• 5 post flags marked as "invalid"
• + 5 comment flags marked as "invalid"

Or some such combination leading up to -75. I cannot remember flagging at least 8 post/comments. From this comment
Moderators may mark a flag as "valid" without taking any action on it. – mmyers
, all my flags would have to have been "invalid" , not just "valid" but no action.

Answer 1

It sounds like you may be flagging things that are questionable:

Okay sure, let's [d]o that if it may be offensive (e.g. politically incorrect word used), tangential to question (private off-topic or off-color debate) etc.

Whether or not that sort of thing gets cleared as valid or invalid may depend on which moderator processes your flag. I see that you're from New Zealand, so what's politically incorrect, offensive, or off-color to you might seem completely reasonable to me. (I know that's unfortunate, but it's a result of trying to moderate a global community.) If something is really offensive to you, but it might not be offensive to English speakers in other countries, you might have to explain to us why it's offensive.

Here are a few types of posts that you can flag to increase your "helpful" flags:

• Answers that are nothing more than "Thanks" or "I have the same problem." If they don't offer any new information whatsoever, I'll delete them and dismiss the flag as valid every time. (Also, the older the better. If it's a brand new user and the "answer" is only an hour old I'll usually leave them a comment. If it's a month old I just delete it.)
• Questions that are an exact duplicate. Include a link to the original. I'm even more likely to dismiss the flag as valid if the question was a duplicate by the same user.
• Questions posted as answers.
• Comments posted as answers.
• Posts by users who do nothing but spam.

Since we're getting a lot of flags that are invalid lately, here are a few ways people are flagging incorrectly:

• not an answer should be used for "thanks" and "I have the same problem" answers. If an answer is simply low quality, please just downvote it instead of flagging.
• low quality is more appropriate for questions than for answers, from what I've been seeing. See the discussion on Can we prevent some of the low-quality questions from entering our system? for guidelines on what types of questions to flag as low quality. Again, answers that are of low quality (but are still actual answers) should just be downvoted.
• If you flag something as spam or offensive that is not actually spam or offensive, your flag will be dismissed as invalid.

Answer 2

Here's how I dismiss flags:

1. If I take the requested action on a flag, I always dismiss it as valid.
2. If I don't take the requested action, but the flag was used properly, I still dismiss it as valid.
3. If it's a judgment call or an edge case, I generally dismiss it as valid.
4. If the flag was clearly used improperly, I dismiss it as invalid.

Some of the things I consider improper use of flags:

1. Flagging as Low Quality because you didn't like the question. Use "Not a Real Question" if you believe the question is too simple or too broad. Use your downvotes if you don't like the question. "Low Quality" is for things like serious formatting problems.

2. Flagging as Not an Answer because you didn't like the answer, or disagree with the answer, or think the answer is wrong. The "Not an Answer" flag is for comments or questions that are improperly posted as answers. No matter how bad a real answer is, it's still an answer; use your downvotes.

3. Flagging a post as spam, when it doesn't meet this definition of spam.

4. Flagging because you want your question deleted, without providing an actionable reason.

If you see something wrong, flag it. Chances are good that your flag is valid, unless you're deliberately abusing the system.

Use the descriptions provided in the flagging dialog for guidance. For example, the "Low Quality" flag reason displays the caption "This question has serious formatting or content issues and might not be salvageable."

Answer 3

My rule of thumb. Only flag if you are sure.

"Oh! That's so simple!!!" - NOT. How can you be sure?

Just look at all of the flag reasons that appear when you choose to flag a post. If you feel that the post fits perfectly into one of the buckets you are presented with, then flag. Otherwise, don't.