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This question If $y=\tan^{3}\left(\frac x2\right)$ and $y' = a \sin(bx)\cos(cx)$ what is $\dfrac{a}{b-c}$? has an "answer" posted by OP which is not really an answer but attempts by OP.

I think OP got confused and posted his attempts as an answer.

What I did was edited the question and included OP's attempts and then flagged his answer as not an answer and it turns out my flag was disputed and also, the "answer" it's still there.

Why?

When this kind of things happens again (in the future), what is the appropiate thing to do? flag to mods? or to post here?, I commented in chat CRUDE but I got $0$ response.

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  • $\begingroup$ Doesn't a user need 50 rep to comment? This one has only 31 rep, from an answer in 2018, and looks like they're replying to the comment on their question by posting an answer... which might be all they could do. $\endgroup$
    – postmortes
    Dec 21, 2019 at 7:44
  • $\begingroup$ I would have gone with the "In need of moderator intervention" choice and describing the situation like you just did for us. Noting that it is a self-answer changes the story quite a bit IMO. $\endgroup$
    – user694818
    Dec 21, 2019 at 8:04
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    $\begingroup$ @postmortes One can always comment on one's own posts, and on answers to one's own questions. The 50 rep threshold is for commenting elsewhere. But of course not everybody knows that. I agree with you that it looks like a misplaced reply to a comment under the question. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    Dec 21, 2019 at 12:47

1 Answer 1

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When you flag an answer as "not an answer" or "very low quality", the answer is pushed into the Low Quality review queue where other users can judge whether in their opinion your flag was justified. In this case, all three reviewers chose the "Looks OK" option, which resulted in your flag being "disputed". After that review, another user flagged the post as "not an answer" too. The post went into the review queue once more, this time with a split outcome, three reviewers chose "Looks OK", two voted to delete. This resulted in that flag also being disputed.

Since it really wasn't an answer, I deleted the post.

If a similar situation arises in the future, one option is to raise a custom moderator flag from the start — "This isn't an answer but the OP responding to a comment by posting their attempts, it should be converted to [a comment | an edit]" or something like that. If the moderator looking at it agrees with your assessment, it's just a matter of one or two clicks to convert the post to a comment or an edit, as appropriate. The other option is to do what you did, edit the question yourself and flag as "not an answer". If that works, it's less work for the moderators (which is always a good thing). If it doesn't, you can cast a custom flag on the post and explain the situation.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you for a very detailed and helpful answer :) // Next time I'll do the same as I did then. But you know, I think the ones who reviewev the "answer" didn't read OP's question, because if they had done, then they would have notice that 'his attempts' were the same as the "answer" and so they would have done something about it. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 21, 2019 at 19:07
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    $\begingroup$ The first review was completed before your edit to the question was approved, so for those reviewers it looked more answer-ish also in context of the question. For the second review, yes some reviewers definitely didn't properly read the question. It's always a bit of a gamble whether one gets reviewers who are more or less attentive. And sometimes there are robo-reviewers who just click anything to get their review badge. If we catch them, there are consequences (a temporary review-ban, and in more extreme cases a suspension). $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    Dec 21, 2019 at 19:19
  • $\begingroup$ I see. I should have waited to see approved edit then, and after that a flag. // Well IMO there's no need to get too far (like suspension) but maybe half or one year of review-ban. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 21, 2019 at 19:37
  • $\begingroup$ If all the reviewers chose "looks OK", why doesn't that result in the flag being declined instead of disputed? $\endgroup$
    – YiFan Tey
    Dec 27, 2019 at 10:43
  • $\begingroup$ @YiFan I don't know. I thought it would, but apparently at least in this case it resulted in a "disputed" flag. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    Dec 27, 2019 at 10:50
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielFischer why the question was deleted approximately an hour ago ? $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 28, 2019 at 1:06
  • $\begingroup$ @YiFan that's weird, maybe it was a bug of the system. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 28, 2019 at 1:09
  • $\begingroup$ @ellisaba It was automatically deleted because it was older than a year, had a negative score, no answer and few views. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    Dec 28, 2019 at 1:45
  • $\begingroup$ ah, I thought it was deleted by you (mods) because I saw "This question was removed from Mathematics Stack Exchange for reasons of moderation." see moderation. Do one see this same 'note' if some of you delete ? $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 28, 2019 at 1:52
  • $\begingroup$ @ellisaba If the author deletes, the 404-page says the question "was voluntarily removed by its author", all other deletions (by the system, moderators, or users with the privilege) get the "for reasons of moderation" 404-page. So you see the same note, unless the question was deleted by its author. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    Dec 28, 2019 at 2:01
  • $\begingroup$ ahh, can you believe that whenever I had seen that 'note', I had thought that mods were the responsible for such deletions..duh. Thank you for the information. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Dec 28, 2019 at 2:08

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