Why are all my "not an answer" flags being declined?

Question

I've made three "not an answer" (NAA) flags recently, which have all been declined as "a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it". Why are these flags being declined?

I've read ire_and_curses' post on NAA and I still believe that two out of these three flags were correct.

1. This answer on deck randomizers in Dominion says "don't use deck randomizers, use this website instead". While that might have been an acceptable answer to "How do I use deck randomizers?", the actual question was "Why are there Curse, Copper, Silver, Gold, and victory point cards in the randomizer deck?". I therefore flagged it as NAA because it does not attempt to answer the question.

2. This "answer" on shooting the moon in hearts is a response to a comment, and is clearly a comment, but could not be posted as a comment because the user didn't have enough reputation. The question is about the probability of shooting the moon, not asking for stories about people doing it!

3. This answer on the longest road in Settlers of Catan is clearly by someone who misunderstood (i.e. didn't read) the question. Following ire_and_curses' meta post, I now (just about) understand why this one should be downvoted rather than NAA.

Answer 1

Looks like me for all three.

For the past couple years every time I've declined a flag, I've had to select a reason from a short list. You do get that feedback, right?

The short answer to each one is that immediate feedback.

The longer answer is that what you think requires a moderator's attention is not in tune with mine.

In most cases that I've seen lately where someone has flagged for "Not an answer" no moderator was needed. Downvoting, voting to delete and commenting are sufficient.

When I get the flag, it is presented to me as just the flag and the answer. There are no comments, and most importantly, I don't see the question. Yes, I could click thru and get it, sometimes I do, but I'm not required to in order to make the decision.

Therefore, it has to be really cut and dried. Spam, and self-promotion are the two things that come to mind when I think about "Not an answer" flags that I've approved recently.

The flag is "Not an answer", it isn't "Not the answer". When I respond to the flag, I'm asking myself if what I see could be an answer. If it is, I let it go.

The community is downvoting and deleting answers all the time, it isn't necessary to involve moderators unless the answer is actively harming the site. Additionally, the community can also undelete answers, unless it was a moderator who deleted it. One more reason for me not to perform this particular function except in very clear cut cases.

For more info, more concisely worded, see How do I properly use the "Not an Answer" flag?

Answer 2

People do not always ask the question that they really need the answer for. I cannot tell you how many times I have ignored a question and instead addressed what I considered to be the real problem. Consider this made up example:

How can I sacrifice my mana?

I might respond with:

Land and Mana are two different things. You can sacrifice Land to cards like Aggressive Mining.

I did not answer the question, and yet I think I solved the problem. The author of the Dominion answer probably thinks the same thing - he found a way to solve the problem that does not involve directly answering the question that was asked. You may not agree that the solution is good, and you should vote accordingly.

The answer on shooting the moon in Hearts (now deleted) truly does not address the question. I think that flag should have been accepted.

The answer on longest road in Catan is a wrong answer. Wrong answers have value, because they highlight a mistake that others could make. For more about the value of wrong answers, read this answer on Meta (and check out the comments too).

Answer 3

First, I agree with your flag on the second answer you linked to, and it looks like it has since been deleted.

I think the most relevant point in the answer you linked is the last sentence:

If an answer is technically inaccurate, wrong, or just doesn't answer the question, downvote it.

Even though the first answer you linked doesn't actually answer its question, it does answer a question, and it looks like a real attempt to solve the problem in the original question. Therefore, a Not An Answer flag is not appropriate.

The third one is similar: it doesn't actually answer the question, but it looks like an attempt at answering at least a related question.

The theme here is that both of these "answers" have an answer-like structure and have keywords that make them appear. That makes them answers from the point of view of that flag, and it's up to experts in the domain (Settlers of Catan in this case) to determine whether the answer is relevant and correct, and vote accordingly.