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Some time ago I VLQ flagged this answer and it wasn't disputed, but declined right away..?

Can a VLQ on an answer be declined (the actual reason was declined - flags should only be used to make moderators aware of content that requires their intervention) instead of being disputed (or accepted) or was this just a mistake? Actually I didn't want a mod to intervene and didn't use the mod attention flag.

How can I avoid flags being declined for this reason in the future if this is intentional and I only want to flag a post to get into the normal review queue?

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Try adding a comment to the question explaining what is wrong with it. Something like

"This doesn't seem to add any info to the existing answers, could you expand your answer?"

Most times I see dupe answers is when I'm in the VLQ queue and someone has left a comment similar to that, which lets me know I should check to see if it is a duplicate answer. Then I can appropriately downvote and/or vote to delete. Those who don't have deletion privileges can recommend deletion instead, but the comment should let anyone who is reviewing the answer to look at the other answer and see if it is a duplicate.

As far as I know, downvoting and/or voting to delete a new answer can send it to the VLQ queue without a flag, but I don't know for sure. For the VLQ flags behavior specifically, it will drop an answer into the regular queue if it hasn't been there before (if it has, it goes straight to mod queue). After 15 minutes it gets dropped into the mod queue if it hasn't been handled yet in the regular queue. VLQ flags can't auto delete, but can be validated by regular users by either 6 recommended deletions or 3 deletion votes or a combination of the two. Note: if enough reviews say it looks okay, the flag will be disputed instead of declined.

See here for descriptions of how all the queues work.

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  • Thanks, the first link was what I was looking for. I poked around on Meta.SE but seem to have missed that post. So basically my flag ended up in the diamond queue and a mod declined it with no further explanation. Adding a comment to the post would probably have helped.
    – dly
    Jul 20, 2018 at 6:43
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When a flag is declined with a reason like that, it means a moderator manually handled your flag. In this case, the description explains why the moderator declined it.

An answer that makes an attempt to answer the question but isn't very good isn't flag-worthy or delete-worthy. You should downvote it, but we don't delete those outright. This is a situation where you could take the correct action without involving a moderator at all, hence the decline reason that you received.

VLQ flags are meant for answers that are patent nonsense, like a cat walked across the keyboard, or that are incomprehensible so you can't even tell if it's trying to answer the question or not.

VLQ flags show up in the moderator queue, so they are likely to be seen and handled by moderators. I'm not actually sure how VLQ flags interact with the normal low quality queues. To my knowledge VLQ can't lead to auto-deletion like spam flags, however.

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    It is a duplicate answer that doesnt add anything new, so the consensus across the network is to delete them. but it is usually done without flags afaik
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:30
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    @Dragonrage A custom flag explaining that it's a duplicate would be more useful than a VLQ flag in that case. VLQ flags are usually handled by looking at the answer in isolation, not by comparing it to other answers. Jul 19, 2018 at 18:36
  • Most times i see duplicate answers are when im in the VLQ queue and i see some answer with a downvote and a comment stating that the answer is a dupe. then i know to check that it actually is a dupe
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:39
  • @Dragonrage I have to honestly admit that I don't know how the non-mod queues work. I should probably spend some time figuring that out. Jul 19, 2018 at 18:39
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    found this post that deals specifically with the VLQ queue, and this describes all queues
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:43
  • so for the VLQ queue specifically, a VLQ flag will drop an answer into the regular queue if it hasnt been there before. after 15 minutes it gets dropped into the mod queue if it hasnt been handled yet. VLQ flags can't auto delete, but can be validated by regular users by either 6 recommended deletions or 3 deletion votes or a combination of the two.
    – Dragonrage Mod
    Jul 19, 2018 at 18:47

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