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I noticed today that there were two questions on the site titled something like "aaaaaaaaaa", I flagged both posts as spam.

As it turns out, the PO has edited his (real) questions and removed their content. the edits made were rolled back (at least one of them did) and my flags were marked as spam.

It doesn't really bother me that my flags were marked spam (probably the moderator saw the question after the rollback), but I noticed that the user is still considered an active user without any suspension.

Is this behavior not considered as bad so the user will get some kind of suspension ?

I am refering to https://math.stackexchange.com/users/35277/itachi, the questions in matter were deleted.

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    $\begingroup$ This behavior might be related to the problem discussed earlier People who ask homework questions and then remove them. Here is link to one of the questions - visible for 10k+ users. I found it since it was the question for which the user received editor badge. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:11
  • $\begingroup$ thank you for the link, the second question can be found using my flagging history. $\endgroup$
    – Belgi
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:12
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    $\begingroup$ You and the moderators are the only ones privy to your flagging history. However since the questions were deleted by mixedmath they can be found through the mod tools page. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:14
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    $\begingroup$ Belgi, um, a minor comment: do you mean OP rather than PO? (original poster)? $\endgroup$
    – user2468
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 18:11
  • $\begingroup$ I thought PO=post opener... $\endgroup$
    – Belgi
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 18:14
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    $\begingroup$ @Belgi I've never seen PO before, but OP is ubiquitous. $\endgroup$
    – Alex Becker
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 18:36
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    $\begingroup$ The title of this question sounds a little like a name for Stieg Larsson's novel about SE network. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Aug 18, 2012 at 16:07

2 Answers 2

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Yes, a user edited two of his previous questions earlier today to a string of "a"s in both the title and body. They were both rolled back within 5 minutes (very quickly - great response), and in that time both were flagged many times (a total of 11).

The two questions were originally posted over a month ago. Both were downvoted and neither had answers. The user mentioned that he wanted his questions to be deleted (presumably he didn't know how, and edited them to be useless instead). I then deleted them.

As I saw no aggressive nor malicious intent (instead only a lapse in taste), I did not suspend the user. Were this to happen again, things might be different.

I wanted to note, though, that your flags aren't "marked as spam" as you mentioned, but instead are "spam flags," i.e. you flagged him as spam. In fact, your flags were deemed "helpful." I blame this on the UI of the sidebar, as when it says "x posts marked spam" above "y posts deemed helpful", one is inclined to believe that someone else deemed your posts as spam, just as someone else deemed your posts as helpful. But that is not the case: "x posts marked spam" in your flagging summary means that you have marked "x" posts as spam.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you for this clarification. The UI had "flagged as spam helpful " and the spam part is in bold red, so I interpreted that it was marked not helpful, but rather as spam $\endgroup$
    – Belgi
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:50
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That wasn't spam. That was vandalism. There is a little point in flagging spam such post since rollbacks undo spam flags.

On the other hand, it is a good idea to rollback and leave a comment, or flag a moderator in case the user has vandalized several questions.

That being said, I'm not sure why the questions were deleted after the rollbacks; but those are down-voted and unanswered questions anyway. Personally, I wouldn't bother to vote to undelete them.

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  • $\begingroup$ Do you think we should keep those questions if the PO have removed their content ? $\endgroup$
    – Belgi
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:18
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    $\begingroup$ @Belgi: Because the OP might be trying to "dodge dishonesty claims", and we shouldn't support that; because someone might find the question interesting and want to work on it; because someone will ask again and the comments in the current thread might be useful to the future asker... $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Aug 12, 2012 at 17:24

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