40
votes
Accepted
Definitive policy about answers not meeting the challenge specification
Scope
As I see it, there are five types of invalid answers:
Answers that produce incorrect results.
This is the most common type, and usually an accident.
Answers that produce correct results, but ...
29
votes
How do we handle spam posts?
Flag, don't vote to delete
If three people vote to delete it before six spam flags get through, then the post will have to be undeleted before it can continue to be flagged. If six flags get through, ...
20
votes
What exactly is 'too chatty'?
Thanks for posting to meta about this; I was the one who declined those flags. I declined them primarily because it appeared that they were flagged based on an automated comment search—they were all ...
18
votes
Definitive policy about answers not meeting the challenge specification
Marking an answer Community Wiki does not excuse it from this policy
Introducing an answer with "I know this doesn't follow the rules but I worked hard on it so I want to post it here" is not an ...
17
votes
Definitive policy about answers not meeting the challenge specification
The new policy should apply to answers that predate it
If the community decides to remove invalid answers (and it certainly looks like it right now), that policy should apply to all answers. Reasons ...
12
votes
Moderation: Handling flags and deleting answers
Delete old posts immediately
I would like to also suggest the option of deleting invalid answers immediately on flagging only if there has been more than a year and a half since the last edit, with ...

Wheat WizardMod
- 85.1k
12
votes
Moderation: Handling flags and deleting answers
Give users time
Wait until it's been 2 days since the user was notified that their submission is invalid to delete the answer.
For example, if someone commented that an answer is invalid in 2016 and ...
12
votes
Accepted
Flag comments for deletion when suggestion is implemented?
Yes, feel free to flag those comments whenever you see them. The important part of your question is
if proper credit is given
I'd hesitate to delete a suggestion if that leaves no trace of who ...
11
votes
Can we stop flagging poor answers as "not an answer"?
It seems we need a sort of guide for flagging, so...
spam / offensive: self-explanatory
NAA: for posts that do not attempt to solve the challenge (examples: "I like llamas," "Wow, interesting ...
9
votes
Flag question comments for deletion when suggestion is implemented?
Yes, but don't be hasty. Even after the author edits the question in response, the comments are still valuable in certain scenarios:
The question was closed as unclear (or is headed that way). In ...
8
votes
Accepted
Obviously chatty comment … flag declined?
Most of the flags were cast on thank you replies to suggested improvements, which had been incorporated and acknowledged in their respective answers. Neither the thank you comments nor the original ...
8
votes
Accepted
What if someone posts a translated answer of another Answer?
If you think it is low-effort and low-quality, downvote it. That's what downvotes are for.
We allow duplicate answers on CGCC even in the same language with identical code, so this isn't against our ...
8
votes
Accepted
Declined flag on a comment which was copy-pasted into the question's body
I've handled those three flags nine days ago.
I don't actually remember declining them, but looking at the comments and the post, it was clearly done by mistake. The comments should have been deleted,...
7
votes
Declined flag on a comment that was fully implemented in an answer
Not the flag-marker, and I by no means represent the community's customs, rules, or attitudes, but I feel like a comment suggesting an improvement to an answer here sort of represents part of the ...
7
votes
Moderation: Handling flags and deleting answers
Delete it immediately
Comment on and remove the invalid answer immediately, and let the user fix it and flag for undeletion if they decide to.
7
votes
Why do moderators decline "no longer needed" flags on chatty comments?
First off I did reject the two flags at the bottom for the exact reason that @ASCII-only suggests in the comments:
For this specific case, I believe self-answering is a very non-obvious thing, so for ...

Wheat WizardMod
- 85.1k
7
votes
Kicked from TNB (by a bot) for "inappropriate content" and have some questions about it
Your link was "flagged".
This happens when a user clicks the little "flag" button, near the star and reply button. They found the picture offensive, flagged it as such, and other moderators and 10k+ ...
6
votes
Accepted
Kicked from TNB (by a bot) for "inappropriate content" and have some questions about it
First, some terminology: you weren't kicked out of the The Nineteenth Byte but got a network-wide 30 minute suspension.
The "bot" you mention – Feeds – owns the deletion resulting from ...
6
votes
Accepted
What to do when something offensive in chat is edited into something not offensive before it is seen
For starters, the full history of a (non-deleted) message can be seen by all users. Additionally, room owners and moderators can see the history of any messages, deleted or not. Therefore, you're ...
3
votes
Accepted
Why are my comment flags declined?
I declined your flags.
My usual criterion for deciding whether to delete comments is to see whether removing them would leave other "orphan" comments that make no sense without the comments in ...
3
votes
Flag question comments for deletion when suggestion is implemented?
Yes, I'd say go ahead and flag them. We like to see attribution for improvements on answers, such as golfing suggestions, but I don't think this carries over to questions. The comments on questions ...
2
votes
Accepted
Why was my flag declined?
I declined your flag, as well as a number of flags on the PHP answer that inspired it.
A character glyph is an image; U+2606 happens to be an image of a 5-pointed star. Since the task is to print a 5-...
1
vote
Moderation: Handling flags and deleting answers
Give users a reminder
Give the user a reminder/new notification to fix it before removing it.
For example, if someone commented that an answer is invalid in 2016 and it was flagged now, leave a new ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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