I noticed that an answer was flagged a year after posting. I am not sure I understand the value of doing this. As a teacher I believe in giving more immediate feedback. I am thinking that someone relatively new to the site would find it very odd to get negative feedback so long after the answer was posted and am wondering if he will even see it. Is the value to our "readers"? Would appreciate hearing thoughts on this practice.
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
-
1$\begingroup$ Might it have happened by accident? Sometimes I respond to a comment or an answer (on Maths SE), thinking that it's recent, only to realise afterwards that it's an old post that's been "bumped". (Or sometimes, that I've accidentally navigated to the final page of questions, which are all from 2010!) $\endgroup$– timtfjCommented Dec 28, 2018 at 15:42
-
2$\begingroup$ Considering that there's a comment explaining the reason why it got flagged (basically "not an answer" because the flagger believed it doesn't answer the underlying question), I'd think the value is to keep the site clean for future readers. $\endgroup$– Andrew T.Commented Dec 28, 2018 at 16:55
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
2
Since it looks like I am the one that first flagged the answer: the question was bumped to the front page by a new answer. While looking over the other answers to that question, it seemed to me that the answer under discussion here didn't address the question being asked, so I flagged it (and commented) under the theory that irrelevant answers should be deleted.
Note that the goal was not to give feedback to the answerer, who is very likely gone. Instead, the goal was to clean up an answer which was (in my opinion) of low quality. I left the comment to indicate to other reviewers why I thought that the answer was of low quality and should be removed from the site (and not really to give feedback to the answerer).
answered Jan 7, 2019 at 5:41
-
1$\begingroup$ I remember clicking "Looks OK" on the answer because it was a year old and it seemed cruel to send a notification to someone based on a year-old post, but after reading this I agree that thinking about the long-term usage of the site is better than worrying too much about being mean to the answerer. $\endgroup$ Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 17:42
-
1$\begingroup$ 4 years ago, on another stack, which I don't frequent, I answered a question, and within a few hours was prompted to improve my answer lest it be deleted. I quickly did so, and saw a net +4 for the answer. Just a few months back, I saw a comment pop up on my phone app, and another an hour later. That 4 year old answer got deleted since I had no interest in another edit after so long. A mod privately told me they are trying to clean up old Q&A. I wished him well, and was done with that stack. In this case, I agree, OP never visited again after the posting. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 18, 2019 at 9:24