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Math.SE has recently been flooded by the continued posting and re-posting of an extremely bad question.

I flagged the question (once), and voted to close all that came after it. But I don't think it is appropriate to flag more than once, since it will probably just annoy the moderators. Is there something else I can do?

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  • $\begingroup$ Related? meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/21346/… $\endgroup$
    – apnorton
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 13:15
  • $\begingroup$ This is not related to the core of your question, but... You said "...just annoy the moderators." I am surprised that annoyance of moderators affects your behavior at all. What is next? You'll say that you flag posts in the afternoon only, so that you don't spoil moderators morning coffee?? $\endgroup$
    – VividD
    Commented Sep 9, 2015 at 6:12

1 Answer 1

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The question is not spam in the literal sense of the word. And since the system is automatically trained by spam flags, you shouldn't use spam flags.

You should downvote and vote to close. And you should let nature take its own course. You can should flag for a moderator's attention, to bring the account into their attention and hope it will speed the process, as was the case here.

But you shouldn't flag as spam.

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    $\begingroup$ Flagging for moderator attention is probably a good idea in these cases since we can take action against the underlying accounts, and that action may lead to IP blocks. (And if multiple accounts are being created for this purpose, flagging each post would help ensure that we do the needful to each account.) $\endgroup$
    – user642796
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 5:02
  • $\begingroup$ That's actually a good point! $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 5:17
  • $\begingroup$ For instance, I didn't flag as spam. I realize that the definition of spam in this site is very restrictive. I flagged for moderator attention. $\endgroup$
    – Aloizio Macedo Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 5:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Aloizio: Yes, I realize now that my initial reading was off. Probably because of the word "spam" was used twice in close proximity to flagging. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 5:22
  • $\begingroup$ No, my wording really let that interpretation to take its place. I editted accordingly. But one question is still open: should I flag every instance of those questions, or only one? EDIT: I see now that this has been addressed by Arthur. Thank you all. $\endgroup$
    – Aloizio Macedo Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2015 at 5:23

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