I saw this image on a question today:
isn't this how this site is supposed to work 100% of the time? Comments are only supposed suggest improvements or see clarity. They don't always get used that way, but that is the intention. Answer should always provide a solution to asked question and moderation almost always remove debates without notice.
How does marking this as controversial mean anything if it just reiterates normal site behaviour?
The notice isn’t there just for new/inexperienced users, although it does seek to inform them of the increased care needed for this question.
Experienced users also get sucked into extended discussions that don’t ultimately help the question or answers but instead diverge into comments addressing each other’s points of view, which ends up just confusing the question/answer and anyone reading.
Thus, the leniency in retaining comments is lowered significantly after this notice is applied. Moderators and flaggers are more likely to seek and remove unwanted comments before discussions escalate.
Controversial posts tend to garner a lot of attention from new and inexperienced users who may be less familiar with the rules and norms of the site. The flag may help to cut down on the amount of effort required by mods to remove unhelpful/opinion-driven posts. It also helps to differentiate a controversial post from a post that is primarily opinion based and cut down on the number of inappropriate flags that must be sorted through.
