3

I hope I am not asking this question in the wrong place. I am really trying to do my best to flag questions when it is necessary, to make SO cleaner, but this picture wounds my enthusiasm with regard to flagging for the greater good of the site.

The first question, https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6626725/how-to-circulate-the-count-of-charecter-array, in the picture below is closed, and I had flagged it but my flag was deemed invalid.

Why?

Flagging Summary

9
  • 1
    It was closed for another reason, not the one you flagged for.
    – Marcelo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:15
  • @Marcelo that never caused me to get an invalid before Mr.Rishmawy
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:16
  • 2
    @Johnny I feel your pain, but you're getting, what, like 3-4 points for a valid. Just wait until that creeps down to small fractions (and the penalty stays the same). Doh!
    – jonsca
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:35
  • 3
    It's a hole in the system, if it was closed your invalid should have been invalidated. Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:50
  • It's not about points or ice creams guys come on :)
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:52
  • @Lance yes that is what I am talking about, I guess :)
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:53
  • @Johnny I know it's not about the points, but the fact that it's a number causes our brains to get into some type of survival state. That gives me an idea though, flagging for ice cream...
    – jonsca
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:56
  • 1
    somebody just deleted my metaphorical comment, I guess that somebody doesn't like ice cream.
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:57
  • 1
    @Marcelo @jonsca @Lance Thank you all.
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:59

2 Answers 2

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I think in the view of some people, the Very Low Quality flag is reserved for the no-turning-back, off to the scrapheap type questions. These are the questions that could be edited to death and more information added, but doing so would not make it any more "answerable".

I think it could be considered Not a Real Question, if anything.

Also, as far as it not being invalidated before, all of the mods are human beings (well, most ;) ) and they view and interpret things differently.

8

The "very low quality" flag is for posts that cannot be salvaged. Two different people understood the question enough that it could be answered, so that was clearly not the case here. The question shouldn't have been flagged or closed, it should have simply been edited.

6
  • I see you opened the question Mr.Bill I am ok with my invalid now.However, If you think that question shouldn't have been closed you should really check many others too..
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:55
  • 7
    While this one appears to have been salvagable, I'm not sure having answers posted is an automatic disqualifier. I've seen totally wild guesses posted on unintelligible questions that I don't believe for a moment were worth keeping around.
    – Brad Mace
    Commented Jul 11, 2011 at 23:58
  • I guess we might need standarts for flagging and closing.Cleaning the site is one thing and besides, as long as a question like that is not closed and it is edited it will be in active questions which will probably cause it to get some more downtvotes and this is nt much encouraging, right?
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 0:07
  • @bemace: I agree with that. If I see a bunch of answers that all start out with something to the effect of "If I understand your question correctly..." then it's a good sign that the question is still unclear. I guess I don't really have a problem with closing the question until it gets clarified, which is what happened here, and which I've even done myself. Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 0:15
  • 2
    @Johnny: There are some standards for flagging if you look around here on Meta, but most of those are going to come with the disclaimer that flags are ultimately judged (sometimes incorrectly) by human beings. This was definitely a borderline case in my opinion, but another moderator might have seen it as a slam dunk close/delete. Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 0:18
  • thank you for the light Mr.Bill.
    – Bastardo
    Commented Jul 12, 2011 at 0:24

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