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I flagged this now deleted answer as Not an answer.

The flag was declined ("Declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it"). But others also marked the answer as Not an answer (in review), and the answer was deleted by a moderator. So there is evidence to support it, including evidence that comes from a moderator.

I also flagged this now deleted answer as probably AI-generated. The flag was declined ("Declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it"). But others also downvoted the answer and voted to delete it, and the answer ultimately was deleted by a moderator. So there is evidence to support it, including evidence that comes from a moderator.

I feel like this is unfair. In my opinion, both flags were helpful (and correct), and since a moderator did respond to both in the way that I suggested (i.e. delete them), I should be credited, not penalized. Maybe the flagging system has gotten a little out of whack...?

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  • 1
    It's quite likely all actions were by different moderators, they don't always agree on everything.
    – cafce25
    Commented yesterday
  • Telling us what the decline reason will help us, who aren't moderators, understand more of the matter as well. Often the decline reasons give good information, such as that the wrong type of flag was used.
    – Thom A
    Commented yesterday
  • @ThomA "Declined - a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it"
    – matt
    Commented yesterday
  • 2
    You should edit that into your question, @matt .
    – Thom A
    Commented yesterday
  • 1
    Please limit the post to a single flag
    – Dharman Mod
    Commented yesterday
  • @Dharman I wrote the question this way because it felt to me like a pattern. After a long period of "Helpful" flags I was suddenly getting declined a lot. It's as if the criteria had changed, behind the scenes.
    – matt
    Commented yesterday
  • 2
    FWIW, for NAA flags, if there is even a hint of an answer, it is always a gamble and such flags can even be declined while the same mod will still remove the answer, but for other reasons. Think of it as giving a hint to flagger that such low quality answers are better downvoted than flagged as NAA.
    – Dalija Prasnikar Mod
    Commented yesterday
  • 1
    It was just a coincidence that two of your flags got declined in similar timeframe, and then it was another coincidence that posts were deleted afterwards.
    – Dalija Prasnikar Mod
    Commented yesterday

2 Answers 2

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Different actions were taken by different moderators, but I was the mod who eventually deleted both of these answer.

I think raising the NAA flag was correct. It was more of a comment than an answer, and while there was a hint about what might be wrong, which some might consider it enough to be an answer, I didn't think it was enough to qualify it as an answer, so I converted it to a comment.

Also at that time OP posted their own answer and it was clear that this one had nothing to do with the issue, and definitely was not an answer to the question.

This is the precise reason why we don't encourage such "guesswork" answers because they are often wrong. On the other hand, with such answers there is always a chance that they guessed correctly, and it is always possible that it solves the problem. If that answer had turned out to be a valid solution then I wouldn't have deleted it.

While I cannot speak for the other mod who declined the flag, it is likely that NAA flag was declined for that very reason: it was a borderline answer and OP still hadn't found a solution. I probably would've converted it to a comment even at that point, but this wouldn't be the first or the last time that different moderators handle a flag differently.

As far as the AI flag is concerned, OP posted more AI answers in the meantime, and they were all removed, including the answer you flagged. When handling AI flags where a post can't be immediately deleted for some reason, there will be differences in how different moderators handle them. However, just like with the previous NAA flag, the outcome can also highly depend on the timeline and when the flag was handled.

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It looks like I was the one that declined the flag but I can't remember it.

The answer looks to me like it could go both ways, either as a comment or as an answer. Even though it's formed as a question, it suggests a potential course of action.

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