Questions tagged [flags]
For questions about the flagging process, how flags are handled, etc., use this tag.
1,606 questions
604
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The rudeness on Stack Overflow is too damn high
We’ve been there, we’ve done that. I know.
But I have to air a feeling of powerlessness against certain disruptive users, and I think that Stack Overflow should have a better mechanism of mitigating ...
414
votes
1
answer
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When to flag an answer as "not an answer"
With respect to some flag rejection messages I received recently, the following seems to be a few of the guidelines for judging an answer:
If it's an incorrect answer, downvote it.
If you don't agree ...
414
votes
4
answers
10k
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Can a machine be taught to flag comments automatically?
TL;DR: Yes it can.
Background
On June 27, 2014 Skynet awoke. It looked at Stack Overflow and thought "Why are all these people being so chatty and talking about obsolete things? I should nuke ...
392
votes
3
answers
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Add ability to cancel flags
It occasionally happens that a post or comment is flagged in error. Perhaps one's finger slipped and the wrong tiny icon was clicked. Perhaps the text was misread and a subsequent reading makes one ...
338
votes
4
answers
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Congrats to Bhargav Rao on 500k handled flags!
It's not often we highlight moderators, but Bhargav Rao has hit a milestone: he's hit 500k on the all-time handled flags chart (it's a moderator-only page, if you're wondering). Flag handling is not ...
319
votes
13
answers
8k
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Educating people to flag spam and not vote to close
TL DR
Is there anything we can do to help educate users to use their flags and not their close votes on spam?
It is not uncommon to see people voting to close spam. Spam should be flagged as spam and ...
292
votes
2
answers
2k
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Notify me when my flag has been handled
I have always been "interrupt-driven" - I'm very bad at polling to see if something has completed. I'd rather fire and forget, and to be notified later.
But that doesn't work with flags. As they are ...
275
votes
7
answers
3k
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Flagging migration should include more options
I have encountered numerous questions in with the sprite-kit tag such as:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/23215645/should-i-use-sprite-kit-for-a-simple-game-like-flappy-bird-or-games-that-simpler
...
210
votes
2
answers
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Comments asking for clarification or an MCVE are not rude/abusive
This is the latest comment to be flagged in what is becoming a trend in faux rude/abusive flags.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I cannot see anything rude or abusive in this comment, in fact they use ...
196
votes
7
answers
12k
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Plagiarism flag and moderator tooling has launched to Stack Overflow!
We're excited to share that we've launched a new suite of tools to help users and moderators on Stack Overflow handle plagiarized questions, answers, and articles. We've been working on this in ...
194
votes
3
answers
8k
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Stack Overflow is not yet a vast wasteland: a history of moderator tooling
Warning: this is long, rambling and extremely boring. I'm writing it because I tend to get a lot of questions regarding the rationale for changes to the moderator tooling on SO, and I'm hoping to have ...
182
votes
11
answers
4k
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The Code of Conduct is a "no moderation" pass? Not on our watch! What can we do?
I am concerned about how the code of conduct is being pointed out in practice. In its short time of existence (close to 2 months), I have seen multiple occurrences of comments claiming to report a ...
172
votes
12
answers
4k
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Can we do more than just delete rude comments?
Lately it feels like there's a growing perception that Stack Overflow is not a nice place. I still feel like it's the best place to ask programming questions on the Web, but apparently not everyone ...
171
votes
1
answer
1k
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We've cleared the backlog of "In need of moderator intervention" flags
After the end of the 2023 moderators and curators strike, the flag queue of "In need of moderator intervention" flags — a.k.a. custom flags, mod flags, etc. was quite literally over 9000! ...
161
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1
answer
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Lower five-second comment flag to three seconds [duplicate]
Many times an obsolete comment ("I have updated the answer") and a subsequent "Thank you" follow each other. Many other situations occur where multiple flags should be raised for related comments.
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