Skip to main content
Meta Stack Exchange

Timeline for What are the “spam” and “rude or abusive” (offensive) flags, and how do they work?

Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0

130 events
when toggle format what by license comment
Jul 6 at 21:16 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 41 characters in body
Jun 28 at 19:21 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Combine the two bullets into one to reduce redundancy. Also, the heading begins with "if", which this bullet doesn't follow the formatting of.
Jun 28 at 16:18 comment added Shadow Wizard @T.J.Crowder four now, it was six back when you asked, yes. What you remember about three is three close votes only, in some of the sites.
Jun 28 at 14:19 history edited Makyen CC BY-SA 4.0
Move recoverable offensive posts to under when not to use R/A flags; add attempts to bypass the question quality filter as not flagged as R/A.
Jun 28 at 14:03 history rollback Makyen
Rollback to Revision 99
Jun 28 at 5:34 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Clarify, as posts that don't qualify for the flag can otherwise not be "valid" if they violate other site rules, and a later bullet says to not use the flag in that case
Apr 10 at 21:14 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Elaborate on the given link
Mar 25 at 6:35 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
This has been broken for years and is unlikely to ever get fixed
Sep 15, 2023 at 5:20 history edited CPlus CC BY-SA 4.0
I have red-flagged questions which later get self deleted, and the flags are still pending; declined red flags can become disputed
Jun 8, 2023 at 0:52 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/63742488#63742488
Feb 14, 2023 at 18:21 comment added V2Blast @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog: Mostly for consistency – since it's an FAQ post, as you point out, it doesn't really make sense to have a bunch of different users' referral IDs scattered throughout the links in the post, in my opinion. (But also, there's a mod-only Help Center page that references this FAQ; I wanted to keep the referral links out of that page, and I wanted to make it easier to maintain that page without having to replace all the links again in the future.)
Feb 14, 2023 at 1:14 comment added Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog @V2Blast Just wondering why you removed the link referrals. Are they not appropriate to put inside FAQ posts?
Feb 14, 2023 at 0:45 history edited V2Blast CC BY-SA 4.0
minor copyediting; fixed formatting for consistency
Feb 14, 2023 at 0:38 history edited V2Blast CC BY-SA 4.0
minor copyediting; fixed formatting for consistency
Feb 11, 2023 at 8:00 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Added link to disputed flag FAQ
Feb 11, 2023 at 8:00 history rollback Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
Rollback to Revision 90 - First, it's already indicated as being retroactive earlier in the paragraph, so it's redundant. Second, it most definitely penalizes the flagger: the number used to calculate the user's daily flag limit goes down and it counts toward a flag ban.
Feb 11, 2023 at 7:09 history edited Cody Gray - on strike CC BY-SA 4.0
A declined flag doesn't penalize the flagger.
Jan 2, 2023 at 14:17 comment added T.J. Crowder It really takes six spam flags to delete a spam question? For some reason I thought it was three.
Nov 21, 2022 at 1:31 comment added starball @animuson does a comment which only contains a bunch of question marks fall under the "gibberish/abuse-of-system" category?
Jul 19, 2022 at 18:23 history edited V2Blast CC BY-SA 4.0
added relevant link
Jun 22, 2022 at 21:41 history edited Catija CC BY-SA 4.0
these flags no longer age out.
Jun 12, 2022 at 19:50 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
deleted 44 characters in body; added 123 characters in body; deleted 155 characters in body
Jan 17, 2022 at 22:38 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Looking at an ancient bug report /q/65621, this was never true for spam flags: it seems the original writer copied it straight from offensive flag info without checking. There's a bug report that it's not applying to offensive flags today, but FAQs are meant to explain the design rather than bugs.
Sep 21, 2021 at 6:35 comment added Mari-Lou A Слава Україні Re. edit: Isn't a question about the origin of a rude word distinct from questions about code that uses offensive and vulgar words for filtering out profanities. These two types of questions would never appear on the same site.
Sep 20, 2021 at 20:48 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
deleted 35 characters in body; deleted 34 characters in body
Sep 20, 2021 at 20:39 history edited Machavity CC BY-SA 4.0
Added some non-flag examples
Dec 20, 2020 at 19:45 history edited Makyen CC BY-SA 4.0
Make the sentence about what is spam more clear that the "and" applies to the whole thing.
Dec 20, 2020 at 19:34 history edited Makyen CC BY-SA 4.0
Be more clear about what needs to be disclosed. Make it easier to quote this post and have a complete concept, rather than have it in disjoint locations.
Oct 6, 2020 at 15:10 history edited GlorfindelMod CC BY-SA 4.0
the example was rather unfriendly
Jun 24, 2020 at 0:46 history edited Donald Duck CC BY-SA 4.0
fixed typo
Jun 24, 2020 at 0:30 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 997 characters in body
Jun 24, 2020 at 0:10 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
deleted 92 characters in body
Jun 3, 2020 at 13:30 history edited CommunityBot
Commonmark migration
Jan 27, 2020 at 20:13 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 326 characters in body
Jul 24, 2019 at 16:24 history edited GlorfindelMod CC BY-SA 4.0
changes will go live today, cf. https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/51139228
Jun 27, 2019 at 16:30 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 75 characters in body
Jun 27, 2019 at 14:15 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 1 character in body
Jun 27, 2019 at 12:53 history edited User that hates AI CC BY-SA 4.0
removed duplicate info about implicit downvote
Jun 27, 2019 at 9:46 history edited GlorfindelMod CC BY-SA 4.0
cf. https://meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/330025/2, the # of flags doesn't matter
Jan 14, 2019 at 15:08 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 4.0
added 127 characters in body
Jan 14, 2019 at 14:07 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 4.0
problems arose in https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/365717
Dec 18, 2018 at 18:55 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
added 105 characters in body
Aug 30, 2018 at 0:33 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 4.0
Let's not swallow the whole sentence into the link
Aug 29, 2018 at 23:07 history edited Bhargav Rao CC BY-SA 4.0
Many many users were flagging completely valid posts as spam because of that. Reworded the sentence by posting the second sentence before the first.
Aug 2, 2018 at 20:02 history edited Bhargav Rao CC BY-SA 4.0
Related reading: https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/41570/conversation/shogs-point-on-flagging-gibberish and https://chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/39342385#39342385
May 29, 2018 at 6:52 comment added Petter Friberg I'm also curious why "However, the disclosure must happen in the post itself; the author’s username or profile do not count.", specially since this is the reason the spam flags are applied (hence people understand the OP is affiliated since OP's name clearly state it's, but since not indicated in answer, it breaks the rules of this post.)
May 29, 2018 at 6:46 comment added Petter Friberg @animuson The "lacks disclosure" introduced in revision 53 has now become a reason to state that a spam flag is valid (not matter what the content of the post is). Hence a post with a link to your github page or even this answer a spam flag according to this guidance is valid. Is this the intention? I had the impression that we should edit in attribution if post is useful, and if it's just a link to a related blog post (hence blog answering question) flag as NAA.
Apr 8, 2018 at 14:05 comment added duplode @ɪʙᴜɢ This edit you have done is being discussed at Meta Stack Overflow. It would be helpful to have your input about it over there (in particular, about what you have based it on).
Mar 14, 2018 at 16:09 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 3.0
better
Mar 14, 2018 at 15:54 history edited Ilmari Karonen CC BY-SA 3.0
add a note about *why* removing spam links from otherwise seemingly valid posts is a bad idea, based on the linked thread
Jan 15, 2018 at 15:15 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 3.0
added 12 characters in body
Jan 15, 2018 at 5:28 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 3.0
Spelling; grammar; layout.
Jan 15, 2018 at 1:07 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 3.0
added 262 characters in body
Jan 15, 2018 at 0:47 history edited Bhargav Rao CC BY-SA 3.0
added the other exception to the difference between spam and r/a flags.
Jan 9, 2018 at 3:53 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 3.0
+
Dec 20, 2017 at 20:19 history edited Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog CC BY-SA 3.0
This most definitely happens on other sites. I saw it happen on MSE a few days ago.
S Oct 21, 2017 at 7:26 history suggested CommunityBot CC BY-SA 3.0
There is now a true difference between spam and rude flags
Oct 21, 2017 at 1:47 review Suggested edits
S Oct 21, 2017 at 7:26
S Oct 9, 2017 at 18:56 history suggested CommunityBot CC BY-SA 3.0
Aging threshold changed to four days
Oct 9, 2017 at 16:21 review Suggested edits
S Oct 9, 2017 at 18:56
Oct 6, 2017 at 15:30 history edited Null CC BY-SA 3.0
deleted 4 characters in body
Sep 29, 2017 at 12:01 history edited Wrzlprmft CC BY-SA 3.0
deleted 250 characters in body
Sep 29, 2017 at 10:38 comment added Wrzlprmft @Undo: Okay, but that’s nothing we need to confuse the average user reading this FAQ with. I slapped a for moderators before that notice, so everybody else knows that they can skip it.
Sep 29, 2017 at 10:32 history edited Wrzlprmft CC BY-SA 3.0
added 670 characters in body
Sep 27, 2017 at 14:38 comment added Undo @Wrzl Issue comes when moderators see this and start declining stuff. It's difficult to coordinate a 20+ person team, and if a blurb at the top of a commonly linked answer helps prevent some mSO drama I'd say it's worth it.
Sep 27, 2017 at 14:35 comment added Wrzlprmft @Undo: I understand this, but that doesn’t mean that anybody following this advice will run into problems. Linking that post (at the very top) gives the impression that the situation is more complicated than it is, which is unnecessarily confusing.
Sep 27, 2017 at 14:33 comment added Undo Mostly, Stack Overflow has jettisoned the difference between spam and R/A flags @Wrzl. For example, this answer prohibits spam flags on gibberish, while SO doesn't care. The wording clarity comment is valid, but I can't come up with better wording right now. Mostly hoping folks click the link.
Sep 27, 2017 at 14:24 comment added Wrzlprmft @Undo: I fail to see your point of the disclaimer you added on the top. The linked post doesn’t invalidate the advice given in this answer the slightest. Also permissive […] guidance on use of flags can be misunderstood in that more posts are permitted, i.e., there are stricter criteria as what can be red-flagged.
Sep 23, 2017 at 10:15 history edited GlorfindelMod CC BY-SA 3.0
added 124 characters in body; added 57 characters in body; added 56 characters in body
Sep 16, 2017 at 16:52 history edited Undo CC BY-SA 3.0
added 161 characters in body
S Aug 4, 2017 at 6:09 history suggested CommunityBot CC BY-SA 3.0
add flag clearing procedure
Aug 3, 2017 at 23:44 review Suggested edits
S Aug 4, 2017 at 6:09
Aug 3, 2017 at 17:12 history edited iBug says Reinstate Monica CC BY-SA 3.0
Clarify
Jun 22, 2017 at 22:04 history edited Braiam CC BY-SA 3.0
if you are going to quote wikipedia, at least do it right!
S May 5, 2017 at 18:40 history suggested CommunityBot CC BY-SA 3.0
add note about prior behavior so that people searching for it find it here at this FAQ
May 5, 2017 at 18:15 review Suggested edits
S May 5, 2017 at 18:40
Mar 20, 2017 at 10:30 history edited CommunityBot
replaced http://meta.stackexchange.com/ with https://meta.stackexchange.com/
Feb 28, 2017 at 21:06 history edited Shog9 CC BY-SA 3.0
this implied something that is no longer true (and was always irrelevant)
Feb 20, 2017 at 20:17 history edited Pops CC BY-SA 3.0
update to how the system treats spam vs rude/abusive; minor touch-ups to other places
S Sep 19, 2016 at 5:58 history suggested CommunityBot CC BY-SA 3.0
better outline the difference
Sep 19, 2016 at 5:12 review Suggested edits
S Sep 19, 2016 at 5:58
Aug 4, 2016 at 7:45 history edited Wrzlprmft CC BY-SA 3.0
added 1 character in body
Aug 4, 2016 at 7:27 history edited Wrzlprmft CC BY-SA 3.0
Being more specific about “abusive of the system or community”. Flags can now be retreated. Consistent formatting. Minor stuff.
Jul 31, 2016 at 12:36 history edited Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' CC BY-SA 3.0
the “offensive” flag has been renamed to “rude or abusive”
Apr 8, 2016 at 22:23 comment added Petter Friberg Be careful on "gibberish posts" Shog9 instructions is that on user with reasonable posts elsewhere "flag will be declined because it'd mess them up for what was probably an innocent mistake."
Mar 20, 2016 at 21:10 history edited ArtOfCode CC BY-SA 3.0
added 295 characters in body
Feb 2, 2016 at 7:08 history edited Shadow Wizard CC BY-SA 3.0
Adding official stamp so people won't keep removing this.
Feb 2, 2016 at 6:30 history rollback Braiam
Rollback to Revision 35
Apr 28, 2015 at 17:51 history edited bmike CC BY-SA 3.0
please don't flag gibberish as spam or offensive
Apr 14, 2015 at 6:37 history edited Shadow Wizard CC BY-SA 3.0
Clarify 3 flags removing from front page, adding another consequence
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:17 comment added hvd @animuson Thanks. I've edited to hopefully make it clear that "offensive" is supposed to cover both meanings of "abuse".
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:16 history edited hvd CC BY-SA 3.0
clarify "abuse"
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:14 comment added animuson StaffMod @hvd Here's the post I was referring to. It's since been edited to also include the VLQ flag (though the NAA flag will also do the same thing now). There's no harm in letting it run through the review queues instead, but nuking it as offensive will throw them into the system filters and blocks to prevent them posting more junk in the future.
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:08 comment added hvd @animuson That seems fair enough, but then the part of this answer that covers "Offensive" could use some cleaning up as well. I'll see if I can think of clearer wording (no promises) to edit, or if you can think of some, please do edit.
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:07 comment added animuson StaffMod @hvd We've established in past discussions that abuse of the system qualifies under the offensive flag. Posting gibberish that doesn't mean anything is definitely abusing the system.
Feb 25, 2015 at 15:06 comment added hvd @animuson Doesn't "It contains only gibberish, such as "fsdguejgkfdlk". Use the 'offensive' flag for these cases, or flag 'for moderator attention' with a custom explanation if it requires more detail." contradict "As a rule of thumb, if you can't justify something as being hate speech, or abuse, you shouldn't mark the post as offensive. Instead, you should down-vote the post."? That doesn't seem like abuse, at least not abuse in the meaning normally associated with "offensive". (Before your edit, this answer said to flag gibberish as NAA.)
Feb 24, 2015 at 19:49 history edited user259867 CC BY-SA 3.0
There is no "warning message" for offensive flags. Also, mentioned the possibility of editing
Feb 6, 2015 at 14:44 history edited animusonStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0
added 21 characters in body
Dec 27, 2014 at 10:17 history edited Deduplicator CC BY-SA 3.0
added 2 characters in body
Dec 14, 2014 at 19:33 history edited Brad Larson CC BY-SA 3.0
The wording was incorrect about offensive flags, implying that they don't feed the anti-trolling system.
Jun 27, 2014 at 14:45 history edited Monica Cellio CC BY-SA 3.0
spam-handling is real now, not just a future idea
Apr 23, 2014 at 13:38 history edited CommunityBot
Fixup of bad MSO links to MSE links migration
Apr 23, 2014 at 13:35 history edited CommunityBot
Fixup of bad MSO links to MSE links migration
Apr 23, 2014 at 9:16 history edited CommunityBot
Migration of MSO links to MSE links
Aug 20, 2013 at 18:09 history edited animusonStaffMod CC BY-SA 3.0
Combining them, as a lot of the information is the exact same.
Aug 30, 2012 at 15:24 history edited user102937 CC BY-SA 3.0
added 213 characters in body
Aug 27, 2012 at 19:58 vote accept Kip
Aug 27, 2012 at 18:32 history edited user102937 CC BY-SA 3.0
deleted 8 characters in body
Aug 25, 2012 at 14:41 history edited Jonathan Leffler CC BY-SA 3.0
Continuing the improvement of the 'when not to use the Spam flag' section.
Aug 24, 2012 at 15:09 history edited user102937 CC BY-SA 3.0
deleted 28 characters in body; added 2 characters in body; deleted 1 characters in body; deleted 54 characters in body; added 5 characters in body
Aug 24, 2012 at 7:12 history edited Jonathan Leffler CC BY-SA 3.0
Distinguish between answers and questions for the 'not marked' cases.
Aug 24, 2012 at 5:36 history edited wchargin CC BY-SA 3.0
Fixed gramer (users -> user's; no one-item lists)
Aug 23, 2012 at 16:41 history edited bstpierre CC BY-SA 3.0
update stale link
Aug 23, 2012 at 15:56 history edited dbr CC BY-SA 3.0
Tweak formatting on "why should spam flag not be used" section, as the nested lists were hard to read
Aug 22, 2012 at 17:46 history edited Jonathan Leffler CC BY-SA 3.0
suggest flagging as 'not an answer'.
Aug 22, 2012 at 17:36 history edited Jonathan Leffler CC BY-SA 3.0
Clarify the 'When should the Spam flag be used (not used) section; prototype alternative actions for non-spam.
Aug 22, 2012 at 16:05 history edited user102937 CC BY-SA 3.0
added 54 characters in body
Aug 22, 2012 at 15:47 history edited user50049 CC BY-SA 3.0
added 175 characters in body; added 41 characters in body
Feb 6, 2012 at 18:12 history edited ErikE CC BY-SA 3.0
grammar, punctuation
Nov 16, 2011 at 11:01 history edited Time Traveling Bobby CC BY-SA 3.0
Cleared confusion from here: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/112384/flagging-as-spam-reduces-an-answers-score-shouldnt-that-also-reduce-the-user
Jun 25, 2011 at 19:46 history edited Shog9 CC BY-SA 3.0
Added note on moderator use. Removed now-inaccurate comment on 10k visibility
Mar 4, 2011 at 10:52 history edited Piskvor left the building CC BY-SA 2.5
Verified by observation: every spam flag adds one (1) downvote to the post in question.
Jul 22, 2010 at 17:41 history edited Andreas Bonini CC BY-SA 2.5
see http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/56223/has-there-been-an-uptick-in-spam-votes-against-established-questions/56224#56224
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:46 history edited Grace NoteStaffMod CC BY-SA 2.5
Fixed accidental link override ♪
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:45 history edited Kip CC BY-SA 2.5
added 95 characters in body; deleted 13 characters in body
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:44 history edited Grace NoteStaffMod CC BY-SA 2.5
Do not ask what hoops I went through to find that post ♪
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:42 history edited Kip CC BY-SA 2.5
added 358 characters in body; added 14 characters in body
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:37 history edited Kip CC BY-SA 2.5
added 182 characters in body; deleted 5 characters in body; deleted 182 characters in body
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:36 history edited Grace NoteStaffMod CC BY-SA 2.5
You missed one ♪
Jul 22, 2010 at 14:28 history answered Kip CC BY-SA 2.5
toggle format