What is the point of the 'Not an Answer' flag option for answers?

Question

When flagging answers we have this option:

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

I think it should be removed entirely.

Agent86 referred to flags in his answer as:

Flag
A question needs closing or deleting fast and/or you can't cast a close/delete vote on it. It is evil, weird, or in any way exceptional and deserving of moderator attention for any reason.

We are discouraged to use flags as super-downvotes, but this flag option is nothing but a super-downvote.

I don't feel the 'Not an Answer' option really fits a description of an action that extreme.

Answer 1

I think you're mixing two concepts here. On the one hand, there is a bad answer, which attempts to answer the question and is either wrong or lacking in information. Such an answer deserves a downvote.

On the other hand, there is a non-answer, where the post doesn't even attempt to address the question at hand. These should not continue to exist on the site in such a state. The "not an answer" flag reason is meant for this category of "answer" that isn't really an answer at all.

Answer 2

Actually, I find this to be basically the most useful option. Downvotes mean that something isn't useful, or basically that it's wrong or the idea doesn't work, even though the answerer thought it would.

Not an Answer flags are for when something doesn't answer the question, like someone just making a joke, saying "Me too!", or someone giving general advice that isn't relevant to the question. There's not really any overlap with downvotes though. Just because it's incorrect or not useful to you, doesn't mean it should be flagged, and you usually don't need to bother downvoting stuff that should be deleted.

Using flags as a "super-downvote" is abuse and not their intended use. Getting rid the NaA flag would remove almost any filtration of answers.

Answer 3

Not an Answer exists because there are posts that aren't answers, yet don't qualify as spam or offensive. The spam and offensive flags allow 6 common members (15 rep or more) to remove a post, whereas NAA still requires the attention of mods and/or 10k'ers.

Think of three levels of net contribution to the community: a positive contribution, neutral contribution, and a negative contribution.

Any answer post that actually attempts to answer the question is a positive contribution, regardless if it's actually right. Why is it always a net contribution? Well, if it's wrong, people will downvote and comment, which lets you know what not to do.

It should be obvious why spam and offensive post are a negative contribution: they add nothing to the community, and can actually drive others away.

This leaves all the other posts that aren't offensive or spam, yet aren't actual answers in the uncomfortable middle. In some cases, they're comments from users who can't comment, in others, they're similar or follow-up questions. We don't want regular users completely destroying these posts, which is why we hand off responsibility to our elected mods, and the users who have invested enough time into the site to gain 10,000 rep. Often, we want to keep these users around so that they can make an actual contribution down the road, but they just need some guidance. Indiscriminately deleting their posts or downvoting them is not how we encourage future contribution.