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On his answer, Shog9 says:

Unlike post flags (WHICH YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER ABUSE IN THIS FASHION), comment flags don't count against the author in any way, […].

Does that mean that something happens to users with many flagged posts, such as being banned from answering questions?

I have always thought that the effect of flagging a post would be to add an entry on users/flagged-posts/<user-id>, which would help the other moderators to notice (for example) how many answers of the user were instead comments, or altogether different questions written as answers.

Suppose that, in a site where I am a moderator, a user writes a completely different question as answer for a question I asked. I could simply delete it, or I could flag it as not an answer and delete it. In the latter case, there would be an indication of how many answers written by the user were flagged as not being an answer; to know that, in the first case, a moderator should check every single answer, and try to understand why the answer was deleted.

If there isn't any automatic action that is taken for a user with too many flagged posts, what is wrong with flagging a post before deleting it?

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For one, quite a few of my answers have triggered the automatic "too many comments" flag. I hope those don't count against me. –  Mysticial Sep 22 '12 at 4:30
I hope not, especially if the comments where left from two users who were debating between each other about the meaning of your answer. :) –  kiamlaluno Sep 22 '12 at 4:32
Is flagging before deleting to raise your flag process count or to be pedantic TPS reporting? –  random Sep 22 '12 at 4:45
@random The flag process count doesn't have any meaning for a moderator, as a moderator doesn't get any badge for correctly flagging. It's not even about being pedantic, as it is more leaving track of what done in the page showing the flags raised against a user. –  kiamlaluno Sep 22 '12 at 4:50
The process count as in time to handle flags, mods don't as a matter of normal course raise flags, but put them down –  random Sep 22 '12 at 4:52
@random I don't see your point: There isn't a badge for handling flags in short time. –  kiamlaluno Sep 22 '12 at 4:55
Why are you hung up on badges? –  random Sep 22 '12 at 5:02
@random Because they are shiny? –  Mysticial Sep 22 '12 at 5:07
@random The least you can gain on a Stack Exchange site is a badge. If there aren't badges, there is nothing you gain. –  kiamlaluno Sep 22 '12 at 6:38
That's odd. Asking about activity logging manages to still drag in badges out of nowhere –  random Sep 22 '12 at 13:33
@random It was you to drag in flag process counts from nowhere. The question is about automatic actions taken for a user with many flagged posts. Moderators don't gain anything with flagging posts, as what other users would gain (badges) are not gained from moderators. And no, nobody is going to pat moderators' shoulders because the average time for handling flags on the site they moderate is lower than all the other sites. –  kiamlaluno Sep 22 '12 at 20:07
You could just delete. It's the same action. You don't have to flag if it's obvious why the action was taken. Which they should be. Otherwise you'd flag for another mod to look at it. –  random Sep 23 '12 at 0:11
@random The question is about something else. Then, if you just delete an answer, who wants to see how many answers has been deleted because they are not answers should check every single deleted answer. –  kiamlaluno Sep 23 '12 at 0:55
The least I can gain on a Stack Exchange site is a downvote. I gain so little, I end up losing! –  BoltClock's a Unicorn Sep 23 '12 at 21:39

1 Answer 1

up vote 6 down vote accepted


You already know the answer to this. As a moderator, you know that each and every post flag is recorded, permanently, on the author's account. You know that there's a page that ranks users according to the number of flags on their account. And you know that there are at least two standard moderator messages specifically written to address users who've generated a high number of flags on their posts.

A few flags over time are usually no big deal. A lot of flags tends to indicate a problem. If you're abusing flags and indicating a problem where there is none, that's a problem. So don't make problems.

Also, the system itself uses flag history as an indicator. I won't elaborate on that, other than to re-iterate that flag abuse is serious.

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