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I recently encountered some answers that were made into community wiki by their authors for no apparent reason. There are no visible revisions, and it's the only answer, so:

  • Why would someone make their answer into a community wiki when there is nothing "community" about their answer?

  • If I encounter such answers, should I flag them for moderator attention?

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  • $\begingroup$ Of course, no offence meant to WillJagy, it's just the latest example. $\endgroup$ – nbubis Nov 23 '13 at 23:19
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    $\begingroup$ CW can also be used to mean "credit waived," in the case that an author doesn't want to gain reputation points from the post. $\endgroup$ – user61527 Nov 23 '13 at 23:22
  • $\begingroup$ @T.Bongers - perhaps, but that's not likely for an answer which was at $-1$ votes $\endgroup$ – nbubis Nov 23 '13 at 23:27
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    $\begingroup$ Sometimes I make an answer a community wiki for various reasons. And it has happened a number of times that to my surprise an answer became a CW for mysterious reasons (not too many edits). Perhaps a bug. Not worth flagging, moderators have enough real things to do. $\endgroup$ – André Nicolas Nov 23 '13 at 23:39
  • $\begingroup$ It happened to me once that an answer was unintentionally CW. I attributed it to the rather awkward way to write responses on an iPad at the time (could have accidentally checked the CW box). After that there's no going back. $\endgroup$ – WimC Nov 24 '13 at 11:55
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Some folks make posts through community wiki to deny reputation for the post. One example may be to post something that is too long for a comment, but not exactly an answer to the question. Another example might be when a question has been answered already in the comments, and someone reposts the comment as an answer to take the question off of the unanswered list, but does not wish to claim it as "their" answer.

So, I would say no, do not flag them for attention (unless there is something else wrong with the post). There isn't anything wrong with posting through the community wiki. If the author has accidentally made his post C.W. or it has become C.W. automatically through edits, it's up to him to flag it.

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