I was looking at my flagging history because... I don't know why, actually, but anyways: I had flagged this post as rude. It seems to me that my flag was disputed because the profanity had already been nuked by the time the flag was reviewed.
So my feature request: show a little box when reviewing flags to indicate that the post has been edited since the flag was raised.
Maybe this is just a comment, but I think that flag was disputed on purpose. Flags are "disputed" for at least two reasons:
Currently, the following scenarios may result in a flag being disputed:
- A spam or "rude or abusive" flag is cleared (but not declined) by a moderator. These flags are unique in that they can impose lasting penalties on the post and its author, so a special mechanism is provided for them to be cleared without penalizing either the author or the flagger. This can also be done retroactively if the post goes back into the queue, in which case a moderator can mark all such flags on a post as disputed (regardless of their current state).
- A Not An Answer flag or Very Low Quality flag is reviewed in the Low Quality review queue, and the result of the review is "Looks OK".
In this case it appears the first thing happened, and it was by design, system working well, I think?
Disputed flags are neither good nor bad for the person who raises them - they don't have any effect on the number of flags you get each day.
See also: What is the difference between disputed and declined flags?
What Zanna said. I would also like to take this opportunity to ask everyone to only use the rude and offensive flag when the entire post is rude or offensive or when the offensive nature is such that the OP truly is unwelcome here.
If a post simply contains a swear word or two, just edit and remove them and leave a comment explaining to the OP that such language isn't welcome here. Many online communities have no issue with profanity so new users will often simply not be aware of our rules against it. So, if the profanity is something as minor as using the term fucked up a couple of times, a simple edit will fix it. If, on the other hand, it is a rant or an attack on someone or something along those lines, please do flag as offensive.
In other words, there's simply no point in flagging as offensive just because a couple of swear words were used in the post. It is faster, simpler and more effective to click on the edit button and remove them. If you don't have edit privileges, then a flag is the way to go, but if you do and if the offensive material is a tiny and incidental part of the post as was the case here, just remove it and move on.
