I just read the discussion on Area 51 on flagging. It seems like a pretty agressive thing to set a flag, and I have trouble imagining that someone would post something offensive on Mathematica SE. On the other hand you get reputation points for flags. Is this something better left to longer time participants?
7
-
1You don't get reputation points from flagging.– F'xSep 25, 2012 at 20:49
-
That's good. So it should be thought of as a maintenance activity for experienced participants.– George WolfeSep 25, 2012 at 21:14
-
No, I don't expect that there is lot of opportunity to flag stuff on Mathematica SE. It is to be used in order to raise the moderators’ attention to bad behavior, of which there isn't so much here…– F'xSep 25, 2012 at 21:24
-
@F'x There are badges for different flagging levels, however.– Brett ChampionSep 25, 2012 at 21:47
-
2Below different privilege levels, the only way to accomplish things (like having a question closed) is to flag things.– rcollyerSep 25, 2012 at 22:36
-
2A question can be flagged for conversion to community wiki. Also, don't be so sure that there will never be spam here.– PhiraSep 26, 2012 at 19:54
-
Sometimes, you just need to get a moerator's attention. When I first started on stackoverflow, I accidentally, created two accounts and used on both depending on which computer I was working from. Later, I wanted those two accounts merged and the only way to do so was to alert a moderator. Nothing strange or agressive, it just was.– Mark McClureSep 27, 2012 at 2:26
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
Pretty much what rcollyer said in a comment: if you don't have privileges (e.g. close questions - 3k rep) yet, flagging is the way to go.
On other SE sites with more users, bad behaviour (e.g. spam, non-answers) happens more frequently, thus flags are more relevant for those.
Flags are appropriate and appreciated when you find things like answers that are not answers at all but continuations of a question, or duplicate questions that should be closed or merged. It is also reasonable, though in my personal opinion less useful, to flag comments that are obsolete or of no apparent value to the community (I define friendly interaction, even if not strictly informative, as valuable to the community).
You should be very selective before flagging a question or answer as Spam or Offensive; it is not appropriate to use these flags for posts you just don't like for one reason or another.
It is also not appropriate to flag posts merely to communicate with the moderators as this leaves a permanent record of the flag on the author's profile.
