To provide some context, I flagged this answer as NAA. I saw today that the flag was disputed, which I believe means no action will be taken. This was the first time I flagged a post, so please correct me if I am wrong with that. I am fairly confident this answer qualifies as NAA since rather than attempting to answer the question, it just points out a problem with an existing answer - again, correct me if I am wrong.

But that is not the point of this question, my question is with regards to whether the NAA flag was the correct one for me to use if I don't believe the answer should be deleted. According to the text under 'not an answer', the NAA flag means

This was posted as an answer, but does not attempt to answer the question. It should possibly be an edit, a comment, another question, or deleted altogether.

However, I saw this answer to another question state that when an answer is flagged NAA, it is sent to the Low Quality Review Queue, where it is either marked Looks OK, or Deletion. When I flagged the question, I wanted it to be moved as a comment to the answer it was responding to, not outright deleted.

Was the NAA flag the correct flag to use if I do not believe the answer should be outright deleted, or should I have used "Needs moderator attention" so I can describe the situation?

If the NAA flag is the correct one to use, then is there any way I can indicate why I flagged it and what I believe is the best solution, or should I trust that the people who will review it will have a better understanding than I of what to do with the answer?

  • 6
    Just as an answer to the part should I have used "Needs moderator attention" : for me, it doesn't seem that it is the case here, and in general, don't overuse mod flags, because they are handled very specifically / manually by the elected moderators, and their time is very limited. In doubt, post on meta as you just did. They will also mostly be declined (not disputed) if other standard flags should have been used instead, which counts negatively and can "harm"your ability to post new flags at some point .
    – Pac0
    Apr 20 '18 at 13:51
  • That is the usual fate of a NAA flag cast on a post that is not gibberish. Easy to fix, done. Apr 20 '18 at 13:56
  • @Pac0 Thank you! I had thought that a moderator flag would be the wrong way to go, but I wanted to be sure, since it looked like it would give me the greatest flexibility in explaining what is happening. It really should have occurred to me that the flexibility came at the cost of someone else's time.
    – Chris
    Apr 20 '18 at 13:56
  • 1
    Throw in a comment on the answer with a bug as well, and maybe the person who wrote the answer fixes it. Probably doesn't matter here since the answer with the fix is currently voted higher but can be nice to do for completeness.
    – ivarni
    Apr 20 '18 at 14:06
  • 5
    The answer points out that the answer doesn't work because reasons. It should be a comment under said answer, not an answer.
    – Braiam
    Apr 20 '18 at 14:43
  • 2
    4 upvotes for that "answer" ? seriously? related question of mine: Should I flag or should I go Flagging seems to be reserved to extreme cases. There's a "gray" area where clowns can collect rep with borderline answers... Apr 22 '18 at 7:38

It looks like the post author now has enough reputation to comment. I'd leave a comment on the post explaining that they should delete their answer and repost it as a comment. However, this may be to no avail, because their answer has upvotes and they'd be less likely to delete it. As such, it may be useful to follow the general guideline below.

In other cases like these, where the answerer doesn't have enough rep to comment, I'd custom flag. Moderators have the ability to convert answers to comments, which is done in exceptional cases where a non-answer's contents are still valuable for some reason. Clearly explain in your flag that you'd like it converted to a comment, and link to the answer it should be a comment on.

I wouldn't worry too much about moderators' time (but keep in mind that it is limited). From what I've seen, moderators actually prefer it if users custom flag if it's not immediately obvious that something's not an answer, rather than use the standard "not an answer" flag. Judging from that, I'd say don't worry about the time impact of a single flag (i.e. just don't do it frivolously).

By the way, I think I should explain how NAA flags work. If the answer hasn't already completed a review in the Low Quality Posts queue, it's sent there. There, if enough users decide it "looks OK", it's marked disputed. If the answer has already been reviewed in the Low Quality Posts queue, the flag is sent to moderators.

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