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I see that certain significant questions are protected by the community.

Can I 'flag' a question as significant enough for becoming protected?

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1 Answer

up vote 6 down vote accepted

Questions are usually protected when there is a slew of non-answers being posted as answers.

Protected questions have the additional restriction that new users are not permitted to answer the question. Unlike locked questions, they can still be edited, commented on, and voted on. You can even vote to close them.

Examples include:

  • spam
  • Thanks!
  • I have the same problem, how can I fix it?
  • spam
  • I'm too lazy to get rep so I write a comment, so here's an a non-answer for the mods to remove.
  • I haven't read the FAQ, so here are more details for my question, posted as answer.
  • spam, spam and more spam

Usually in such cases, the question will be protected by a mod, a high rep user (15k and up). The Community user will automatically protect any question where three answers posted by new users have been deleted.

You cannot simply trigger protection via a flag, however, as a real person must accept your request and follow through with protecting the question. However, if you believe a question should be protected, flag for moderator attention and someone will look at it.

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I was under the impression that questions that are protected against non-answers are those considered as very important. so, that is not the case and protecting has only the purpose of removing annoying posting? – cipricus Feb 19 at 20:42
i think this question should be protected both because it is of significance and because it already has some useless comments:askubuntu.com/q/155809/47206 – cipricus Feb 19 at 20:51
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@cipricus: Protect doesn't block comments (which new users can't leave anyway) and wouldn't have blocked any of the answers posted to that question so far (which are all from folks with well over 10 reputation points). – Shog9♦ Feb 19 at 22:08
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@Shog9 thanks for the mighty awesome edit! But you missed a spot, you forgot to mention "Also, spam." – RolandiXor♦ Feb 19 at 22:42
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@RolandiXor Please mention also spam and spam. I also have the same problem, how can I fix it? Thanks. And remember spam. – Luis Alvarado♦ Feb 23 at 5:01

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