I flagged an answer that was only copy/pasted nonsense as spam and got that flag declined - do we restrict the term spam strictly to undisclosed advertisements?
The flag was about https://askubuntu.com/questions/177911/xampp-mysql-error/418261#418261 (removed since). The same user posted something not so blatantly obvious an hour earlier on the same question - this is still visible: https://askubuntu.com/questions/177911/xampp-mysql-error/418229#418229.
Copy-pasted answers would probably contravene our strict policies about copyright that we recently have discussed:
However, before you blast a spam flag - you should drop a comment explaining just that - where the OP has copied from and pointing them towards the relevant site policy. This is all part of polite moderation we should all adhere to. Such a comment will also help out your community moderators - few people are mind-readers and as such need a little bit of help to understand someones thought processes as to why it was flagged as such.
In this particular case, there was no comment and no indication as to where it was copy-pasted from and hence didnt fall into the spam category of undisclosed advertisement and potential breach of copyright.
A second flag was received indicating that this was Not an Answer. This would be the correct action in this case since it very clearly didnt answer the question being posed i.e. the answer containing rambling stuff, non-english stuff etc.
Note - many "Not an Answer" flags are not so clear cut. 50-50 situations should be dealt with by a downvote. This would be a correct way to indicate collectively what the community thinks of an answer.
