I recently came across this answer.
It states an untrue statement in which, I think, was in a joking manor.
What should I do when I see an answer like this?
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3As a general guideline: Before doing anything regarding the answer, check the question. Bad answers are almost always a result of terrible questions, and if that's the case we should deal with the question first. In this instance the question is borderline (imho), and it would be preferable if we find a way to make it better first, and then deal with its answers. – yannis Feb 17 '12 at 18:00
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WTF MAN?! Is it pile up on the Morons Day? ..Calling me out on joke a made a year ago.. smh – Morons Feb 17 '12 at 19:16
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@Morons: I was going through the review list and I happened to come across it. Sorry if this bothers you, just wanted to know what to do... – Dynamic Feb 17 '12 at 20:04
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@Jae NP, where is the Review list? – Morons Feb 17 '12 at 20:06
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@Morons: Top of the screen next to your badges and rep. – Dynamic Feb 17 '12 at 20:07
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@Morons Don't be hatin' on Jae, he is just working towards that Excavator badge ;-) – maple_shaft♦ Feb 17 '12 at 20:49
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@Maple its all good, he cost me 100 rep points, i had to say something. – Morons Feb 17 '12 at 22:06
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@maple_shaft: No... I just like messin with people :P. – Dynamic Feb 17 '12 at 22:35
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@Morons: Once again, sorry about that. Now don't mention it again ;-) – Dynamic Feb 17 '12 at 22:35
The reasons for flagging an answer:
- It's not an answer. It makes no attempt to answer the original question. It could be a comment or clarification that should be merged into the original question or added to the original question.
- It's spam. It's advertising something with only promotion. If it's something that legitimately helps the person asking the question, there should be disclosure if the provider is associated with the thing linked to.
- It's abusive or offensive to other members of the community.
- It's otherwise suspicious and a moderator should look at it in more depth.
A wrong answer is not a reason to flag an answer. Wrong answers should not be flagged just because they are wrong. Leave a comment asking for references or providing a reputable reference that disproves the answer and downvote as appropriate.
Note that I deleted the provided answer since it wasn't an answer to the question. It was an attempt to be funny, and pretty much failed. If it was a comment, I would have left it alone, but I didn't feel that it added any value, so rather than migrating it to a comment, I just removed it entirely.
answered Feb 17 '12 at 17:49
Your choice are (as ever)
- Leave a comment
- Down-vote
If the answer has a negative score and you have more than 20K reputation then you can vote to delete.
What you shouldn't do is flag for moderator attention unless it clearly doesn't answer the question.
In this case it could be an answer (albeit a wrong one) - so there is always going to be a judgement call as to which side of the line it lies.
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Thanks for the advice. The answer was deleted (I don't know by who) but I will use this for future reference. – Dynamic Feb 17 '12 at 17:45
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@Jae - looks like another moderator agreed that it wasn't a real answer. – ChrisF♦ Feb 17 '12 at 17:47
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I looked at it. It made 0 attempt to answer the question - it struck me as a pure attempt at humor. I have no problems with humor, as long as the content also provides a legitimate answer to the question. – Thomas Owens♦ Feb 17 '12 at 17:50
