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A moderator recently declined 12 of my flags on link-only answers. Many of these answers literally had no text other than a link (1 of those had just a broken and nothing else, now a mod note was added but didn't exist when I flagged it). All of these were very obvious link-only answers. The mod acknowledged this, but still told me to "Please stop flagging link only answers." and "don't just seek their removal".

But link-only answers are supposed to be flagged and removed. So why did this mod decline these flags (and get me flag banned)?

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  • 2
    At least for the example you linked, it is the accepted (and only) answer to that question. Deleting the answer would leave the question unanswered, and instead of fixing a problem, create a new one. You could argue that perhaps the entire question should be deleted instead, but there's also not much benefit to that either. Moderators are volunteers with limited time and, at least in this specific example, the flag amounts to creating busywork for them. I have no idea if your other flags were on similar posts or not, just weighing in on this specific example.
    – Seth
    Commented Nov 20 at 4:18
  • 4
    I dealt with some of your flags and indeed most of these answers, link only, would have been corrected in modern times. Most of the flags that I saw from you were flags on posts from 2011 and thereabouts and in some cases they were accepted answers or highly voted. Difficult in these cases to remove the answer and impossible to get the authors to improve their posts from more than a decade ago.
    – andrew.46 Mod
    Commented Nov 20 at 5:37
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    In addition to what the people above said, the specific answer you link in this question might seem as a link-only, but in reality it's not link-only in the "flag this post" sense: the OP asked exactly for the link to the Countdown Timer Image for Ubuntu 11.04 and the answerer provided just that! So, there are cases like this one where link-only answers are acceptable and shouldn't be flagged and removed.
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Nov 20 at 13:18

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I'm so sorry about this. In my view most of the flags were raised rightfully. I had a look at a few of them before any were declined and I was really grateful for the flags on these old posts as we don't often get a chance to clean them up. As you mentioned, some of the links don't even work.

One of the points mentioned in the decline message was that sometimes a link is the only answer, and that was the case for some of the posts. For example, I looked at the flag on this post and I didn't decide what to do, so I did nothing, but I should have marked the flag as helpful and left the post and noted on the flag that I don't want to delete that post because its timestamp indicates that it precedes the better post that contains the same information and more (a corner case of site etiquette). Anyway, sometimes a link is really the answer and shouldn't be flagged as a link only answer. Broken links can sometimes be fixed using Wayback Machine.

But some of the posts were the kind of link only answers that do need to be fixed or removed.

The decline message also suggests that link only answers should be fixed by those who encounter them. I've fixed a lot of link only answers in my time, transcribing videos, quote formatting and paraphrasing material from sources, etc, and it's enormously time consuming. In good times, I would hang out in the Downboat, where many enthusiastic janitorially inclined folks might be hanging out willing to do that kind of wonderful work, but these days, sorry Mum, sorry Jeff, more often than not I just convert potentially useful links into comments :/ Some are not useful and deleting them outright is the right way to go.

I guess my short answer to your question is that I didn't have enough time to finish handling your lovely flags, because I have a 2 year old (who's broken my laptop) and a crochet addiction.

Some of the posts you flagged still need attention (sorry again).

(Updated 22/11/24)

  • I can't open the URL in this answer - can anyone find that information? <-- link dead and Ubuntu One also gone.
  • This answer could be expanded with quotes from the source page.
  • This answer has been fixed by BeastOfCaerbannog :)

Without a decent sized screen and keyboard and with an increasingly pressing need to read The Tiger Who Came to Tea yet again, I can't get the above done at the moment, hope someone else can.

I will try to figure out if I can get you unbanned from flagging...

In the meantime, if you are interested, you can post link only answers in the Downboat where people may be able to help fix them.

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  • @Zanna First post in your list is not saved. We cannot do anything I guess. The link in the second post points to the question, so we cannot know for sure if there is a specific answer that should be quoted. I edited the third post, please check for anything I might have missed.
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Nov 20 at 15:57
  • @BeastOfCaerbannog thank you so much for looking into it! I've remembered that Ubuntu One no longer exists, so, sadly, as nobody ever fixed the LOA, we have no answer to the question. Maybe someone remembers it! Still not sure what to do with the second one. Third one - you did a great job but you fixed a different answer to the one I linked to (two link only answers to the same question!) so I'll leave point three up for now.
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Nov 21 at 3:12
  • @Zanna Ugh, sorry for editing the wrong answer. I also edited the correct one. Please have a look. :)
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Nov 21 at 11:11
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    @BeastOfCaerbannog no need to apologise for doing twice as much good work! I added a missing 'd'. Thank you once again!
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Nov 22 at 18:34
  • (Thanks for fixing the typo. :) ) I had a look at the second LOA again, and I noticed that the linked Server Fault question was asked by the same OP of the Ask Ubuntu Q&A. So since they had accepted an answer in Server Fault, I suppose that this is what they should have linked. The question is hence a cross-post, but, nevertheless, I edited it to point to the SF answer and quoted it. So this is also fixed now. ;)
    – BeastOfCaerbannog
    Commented Nov 23 at 12:59
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đź‘‹ It was me.

I tried to explain in my decline messages, and I was on the cusp of writing a Meta post targeted at people bulk-flagging single issue. I don't think I'm dissenting against my fellow mod, and I was perhaps a little quick to act but a lot of the affected questions were:

  • Where is xyz?
  • Where should I xyz?

… And a link answered them.

I do understand the basis against Link-Only Answers. I'm not arguing that they're Good Answers, but I have to point to a foundational ethos to all this: whatever your action, make the internet better. Deleting mediocre answers does not make the internet better unless in the presence of better answers.

My opinion was that many of the LOAs still answered things. Just deleting those posts has considerably less value than leaving them alone. If you see problems like this, we're far more likely to support taking positive action (pulling posts up to a good standard, or replace them with a good answer) than a bulk delete.

TL;DR: don't flag things that can be improved (within reason)

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  • How was it both you and someone else?
    – Starship
    Commented Nov 20 at 16:54
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    Also, in the future, given that there is indeed a policy stating that LOAs should be flagged, which makes no exception for whether they are the only answer or if they answer the question, could you in the future mark them as disputed. On every other stack I've ever been on this is not how it works.
    – Starship
    Commented Nov 20 at 16:55
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    "Deleting mediocre answers does not make the internet better unless in the presence of better answers" ... But then you have accepted and/or upvoted link-only answers which both encourage others to do the same and discourage/inhibit proper answers, making it a worse place overall.
    – muru
    Commented Nov 20 at 17:19
  • @Starship I don't see where I've said it was someone else. I declined about a dozen of these flags. Somebody else may have caught some but I can't speak to that. I maintain that bulldozing old answers —whatever their issue, short of spam and abuse— is a far worse action than improving them. For some of the "where" questions, removing the post is just harmful.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Nov 21 at 19:58
  • @Oli Only a dozen were declined total. And zanna claims it was their fault…
    – Starship
    Commented Nov 21 at 20:06
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    @Oli Is there some policy stating that this is the case (if not could this be written somewhere) because there is a policy on main meta which says link only answers are always nonanswers
    – Starship
    Commented Nov 21 at 20:07
  • The flagging process has changed so significantly since I last discussed LOAs that I'm not sure it'd still apply anyway. We used to have some resolution between the VLQ flags and now it's just NAA. Perfect is the enemy of good; and I'm pragmatic enough to prefer okay, I guess to unanswered.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Nov 21 at 20:17
  • @Oli Given that the current visible policy disagrees with you (if your opinion is indeed standard policy here), then could it be updated?
    – Starship
    Commented Nov 24 at 0:01

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