There were several posts mentioning that for various reason (mistake in the LaTeX-code, automatically inserted space) MathJax can break page layout:
- Formatting bug: long mathjax or code blocks break entire post or page
- Comments layout break if Math expression is too long
- Spurious space within number
I did not see there addressed the question I am asking here, but if I simply missed it, please let me know.
During the first 5 minutes, the poster of the comment can edit the comment. (At least if they manage to do it; in such situations it is not that easy to click on edit link, which is often hidden.)
After this period, only moderators can edit comments. Therefore I thought that it would be good to bring such comment to moderators' attention. And I thought that flag might be a good way to do it.
But then I hesitated a bit. From the reasons offered for flagging (rude or offensive/not constructive/obsolete/too chatty/other), the only reasonable choice seems to be other (with a custom explanation in the text field). I am not sure whether users are somehow penalized if their comments are flagged. (I could imagine something like that, if the reason for flagging is offensive or not constructive. I am not sure whether it makes sense for other reasons, and whether some kind of such penalty exists at all.)
Another reason I did not immediately flagged the comment I've seen is that I thought about other possible course of action. Namely pointing the OP to the post on meta which describes how they can delete the "offending" comment. They can then post the comment once again, this time without breaking the layout. This would move the workload from the mods to the poster. (And maybe there already is too much work for moderators, so they would prefer user to handle things by themselves if they have a possibility.)
TL;DR: Is flagging the comment (with explanation for flagging as a custom reason) the correct thing to do in situations like this?