I flag the posts that I consider aren't useful for the page and always the flag says "helpful", but sometimes the flags aren't validated and they become "aged away". How can I avoid my flags become aged away?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
4
-
4$\begingroup$ Next time there's an election for new moderators, run and win. $\endgroup$– Gerry MyersonJan 17, 2017 at 22:43
-
$\begingroup$ I understand that the moderators are the ones that decide if a flag is accepted or not, but what I mean is if there exists something to do to avoid the flags become aged away. $\endgroup$– iam_agfJan 17, 2017 at 22:47
-
1$\begingroup$ I would not view "aged away" flags as something to avoid. It is possible that (for example) you flag something as "very low quality" and an edit gets performed that substantially improves a Question. If you find that a flag has aged away without redeeming action, you can resubmit the flag. $\endgroup$– hardmathJan 18, 2017 at 1:42
-
2$\begingroup$ @hardmath Actually, when a post with a "very low quality" flag is edited, the flag is automatically disputed. $\endgroup$– user642796Jan 18, 2017 at 17:15
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
Not all types of flags can "age away". According to Meta Stack Exchange these are the only types:
- Spam and rude/abusive flags on posts age away after 2 days.
- Rude/abusive flags on comments age away after 4 days.
- Migration close flags (and votes) age away when the post can no longer be migrated (i.e., when it is more than 60 days old).
- Close/reopen flags (and votes) age away at latest 14 days after the newest close/reopen vote.
The first two types of flags are immediately brought to the attention of the moderators.
In my experience, spam and rude/abusive flags on posts are dealt with fairly quickly. When present they are highly prominent in the moderator flag queue, and I make it a personal point to prioritise dealing with them (and I'm sure I'm not the only one). It is highly unlikely that these would age away.
Comments are something generally easy to deal with, and I don't think too many rude/abusive flags on comments are left for long periods of times. I have no statistics on this, unfortunately.
The last two types of flags aren't specifically brought to the attention of the moderators. Instead they bring posts to the review queues for community evaluation. If these sorts of flags age away, I would generally take it that there isn't broad community support/agreement with the action you proposed. Part of avoiding aged away flags of these sorts is becoming knowledgeable with the norms of the community.
All in all, I wouldn't worry too much about aged-away flags. Sure, it could be interpreted to mean that your flag wasn't clearly valid, but more positively it can also be taken to mean that your flag wasn't clearly invalid.
answered Jan 18, 2017 at 4:48
-
$\begingroup$ @MonsieurGalois About close/reopen flags, I will add that once you have 3k reputation points, you'll be able to vote to close/reopen instead. Be it votes or flags, if the question is not closed/reopened, you might ask in this chat room or post in reopen request thread or in similar thread for duplicates. $\endgroup$ Jan 18, 2017 at 5:11
-
$\begingroup$ It isn't exactly the case that there wasn't broad community support for a closure that a flag would be marked "aged away". A single close vote after a recommend closure flag will result in the flag being marked helpful, and a consensus of "Leave Open" with no close votes will result in the flag being marked declined. What happens commonly in the case of "aged away" is that either nobody got around to reviewing a task, or there were only some "Leave Open" reviews but not enough to dismiss the task in time. $\endgroup$– gparyaniFeb 28, 2020 at 17:50