2

I flagged an answer as "not an answer", but the flag was declined.

While there is an endless stream of "quit today" answers on Workplace.SE, this one doesn't even do that. It's just telling that the employer failed to properly organized the workplace and that this is a red flag. It doesn't answer the specific question, nor does it suggest any other action plan. It's more like a comment, but comments on SE are only valid for improving posts, so that it should be deleted completely.

It's highly upvoted, but if that's not a candidate for "not an answer", then I don't know why that flag does exist at all. Therefore I'm asking for a second opinion here.

Was the flag correctly declined? If so, how does this help the OP?

1
  • 2
    I handled the flag, and declined it, as the question was answered. Granted, its not the best answer in my opinion, but it is an answer.
    – Neo
    May 1, 2020 at 11:53

4 Answers 4

2

Was the flag correctly declined? If so, how does this help the OP?

My two cents to this is that, although I didn't handle that flag, I think it wasn't wrong to decline.

Why? The post does provide an answer to the question OP is asking.

OP asked

"Any ideas on how I can better isolate / partition the personal and the work Facebook activities?"

... but the answer you flagged does give an answer/course of action tight there (emphasis mine):

This is a big red flag. If it's really integral to their internal communications then they would have it organized and would give you an account to use.

Which suggests that the company should provide a specific FB account for such use, in order to better partition personal and work FB activities. In other words, suggesting OP "not to foo the bar" (don't mix a single account for work and personal).

On another note, the user who's answer you flagged has a very zen-like minimalist style of writing, which is something that is not intrinsically wrong with answering questions or not helping OP (as evidenced by all the upvotes on that post and that user's reputation here).

2
  • 2
    That sounds to me like you don't need to give an actual answer, you just must be thought provoking so that they can think an answer themselves. Unfortunately I think you're describing the mechanism of the flagging correctly, which results in bad answers staying at the top and more frustration for new users, who would have been down voted into oblivion for such an answer.
    – Chris
    Apr 30, 2020 at 23:26
  • 1
    @Chris if you check question timeline you will see that it was in hot-questions for about two days. This means multiple upvotes on the answer you flagged most likely indicate not that it was good but that it entertained many passers-by from other sites in the wide SE network, mostly from Stack Overflow
    – gnat
    May 1, 2020 at 21:11
1

I also flagged that answer as not an answer and was declined. It is not an answer and has no value to the OP. “Your company should have done something different” is patently unhelpful. I feel quality is getting worse on this SE and many questions are just an excuse to spout opinions. I find myself using it less when basic quality is not upheld by voters or mods.

0

I'm both a school dropkick and don't get to use English much in normal life, so I make brief focused answers addressing the core problem as I perceive it and disregard the fluff. Hopefully I'm less likely to make a fool of myself that way with my limited English.

In this case my perception was that the OP wasn't addressing the core problem, so I highlighted it and pointed out the correct solution.

Basically the answer boils down to:-

This is the 'real' problem.

This is the professional solution within the parameters.

If so, how does this help the OP?

With the obvious implication that the OP should re-evaluate the problem.

Someone has to point these things out, so I consider it a valuable answer.

I do put quite a bit of thought into my answers, but feel free to downvote, advocate deletion or try and organise a lynch posse or whatever else you deem appropriate.

-1

I didn't flag the answer. I up-voted the answer soon after it was written. I don't always up-vote answers from that user, I have also down-voted their answers, and I have probably flagged some.

I agreed with the general idea that was written. The actions of the company/project are a huge red flag. The use of employees Facebook accounts instead of the proper tools is a sign of a big problem.

Yes, some people will provide answers that address the part of the original post that had the question mark, but the concept of this answer is still correct. The burning flag is the important part of the original question. The Facebook ToS is not the problem.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .