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When flagging an answer, question or comment you later see in the flagging history page whether or not a moderator thought your flag was helpful, disputed or declined.

In past versions it was possible to see by hovering who was the moderator declining the flag. Nowadays you can no longer see who was that. I'd assume that this has some purpose.

Of course the moderator's decision is final, however I do believe that some flags would be considered differently by other moderators, and would have liked to know which moderator was the one declining my flag - and perhaps discuss the declination via email correspondence.

Since there is no declination reason (which would be nice, but since this system is used by SO which is a huge website I don't see this happening anytime soon.) is it possible to allow users with "enough" (Deputy badgers?) flag weight to see the responding moderator?

Much like the ability to see closing votes, deleted posts, and so on is acquired by reputation, these should be acquired by flag weight.

On a side note I would like to moan about how unfair it is that for someone with 620 flag weight a declined flag equals about ten helpful ones. It seems somewhat ungrateful...

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    $\begingroup$ The "Deputy badgers" is a joke. Get over it :-) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ I don't see anything about comment flags in my flagging history - and I'd be surprised if you have anything there. Regarding you side note, this is discussed e.g. in this meta.SO post: Total +10.00 flag weight for 10 Good flags, but -10 flag weight for 1 Bad flag, That's not fair! $\endgroup$
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 8:02
  • $\begingroup$ @Hendrik: To be fair, I hardly ever flag comments, so I wouldn't know :-) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 8:22
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    $\begingroup$ Ah, OK, I see. Maybe it's also worth pointing out that comment flags don't affect flag weight. $\endgroup$
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 8:25
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    $\begingroup$ @Hendrik: I also have to note that I strongly disagree that the flag weight is purely for the moderators. If the administrators encourage us with badges and whatnot, then the user starts seeing it as something he earned - there is a psychological factor to consider here. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 12:10
  • $\begingroup$ I didn't decide this :-) $\endgroup$
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 12:12
  • $\begingroup$ Oh, I did not say that you did. It is just the general tone in the links that you brought. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 12:53
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    $\begingroup$ @Asaf It should probably be asserted that flag weight was originally for moderators purely. The publication of the value has naturally changed this fact, though whether that is a positive effect is questionable (but largely absent from this site in terms of severity of complaint). Mechanically, though, it is one of many tools meant to assist the moderators directly moreso than the average user. $\endgroup$
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 15:49
  • $\begingroup$ @Grace: I have no doubt that it is a lot more useful for the moderators to have some bias system to help and consider which flag is more likely to be helpful. However now that the flag weight is public, I do think that it is not the only use for that. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 16:10
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    $\begingroup$ @Grace: While this sounds whiny and immature, and I hate to sound like that, I will unlikely flag anything to call for a moderator intervention. At least not until the SE team decides that -10 flag weight is too much for users with flag weight of >600. It takes me 15 "helpful" to recover from one "declined", and it feels as if I'm doing something which is futile. I'm too old for this... If you have decided that the flag weight should be visible to the user, you should consider further changes. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Oct 20, 2011 at 0:06

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This isn't going to be an issue any longer: flag weight has been removed and replaced with a count of helpful flags.

If you have a question about a particular flag has been declined, you can ask on meta, but there are no directly negative consequences to a declined flag beyond your helpful flag count not increasing.

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