Several answers are of very low quality or some only include links.

I often see users are flagging them for beeing low quality. There are basicly three things I can do as a moderator:

  1. leave a comment to educate the users and try to convince him to improve his answer.
  2. vote down to indicate this is a post of low quality.
  3. delete the post (or convert it to a comment).

If you flag a low quality post, what do you want a moderator to do?


I will answer my own question and want to suggest the following. Post another answer if you disagree.

  1. Leaving a comment - anyone with at least 50 reputation can do this. If you see posts which could be improved: Leave a comment. Don't flag it.
  2. Downvoting - anyone with at least 125 reputation can do this. If you see posts of low quality: Vote down. Posts of score -3 and less will be grayed out and auto-deleted. Don't flag it.
  3. Deletion - only moderators can delete posts. Users with 4000 reputation can cast delete votes. However, please follow the guide from the help center:

When should I flag or vote to delete an answer?

You may vote to delete answers in the following cases:


Keep in mind the site is run by you as the community. Ideally, moderators should do as little as possible.

You got the tools. Use them wisely.

  • 2
    Addendum to 1., if you have a concrete idea how to improve the post, suggest an edit. Also, if I were to put a VLQ flag on something, I'd likely also downvote it at the same time. – Murch Apr 10 '16 at 10:38
  • 1
    I like your 3 suggestions. I would personally want to add: ideally, leaving a comment would always be everyone's first move (even if one has the capacity to down vote), especially with new users. If (a) the low quality answer already has a comment to improve that is at least a week old, or (b) the person who posted that answer is a repeat offender, then I think down voting (for those who can) or flagging (for those who cannot down vote) is the best way to go. I like to be part of communities where we give each other a chance to learn and grow rather than have a punitive first response. – Tesa Jun 2 '17 at 7:33
  • Yes these options are not mutually exclusive. Thanks for your comment. I'm also no friend of deleting very low quality content. – Waqar Lim Jun 2 '17 at 8:45

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