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From this meta post, I got the idea that if an answer is a link-only answer, then it is indeed "Not an answer", which led me to believe that link-only answers should be flagged as "Not an answer":

see this meta post on NAA that states that link-only answers are indeed 'not an answer' (note that it doesn't say anything on when and if you should flag it for that). Also note the fine line when an answer is considered link only or not.

But then I read a conflicting meta post that says that link-only answers should not be flagged:

What not to flag

Any post that attempts to answer the question, however badly is still an answer. You can downvote such posts to signal that the answer is a bad answer, but it is still an answer.

This includes many link-only answers; posts that try to answer the question by pointing at a keyword that happens to be a link, or similar. See Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?

However, on that meta post, there is a highly upvoted comment saying "-1. Link-only answers definitely should be flagged as NAA", leading me to believe that maybe link-only answers should be flagged.

Another meta post that seems to suggest that link-only answers should be flagged:

The first one is definitely not an answer. It doesn't matter that removing the link and leaving the link text only would still give the OP a clue what to look up. The answer is insufficient and does not attempt to provide context or an explanation why it is right. That makes it subject to removal. We expect answers to be answers with a certain degree of quality. Throwing single words or function names at people is not good enough. Also, there already is a somewhat higher quality answer giving the same solution, so keeping the flagged one doesnt add any value to future visitors.

Personally it would make sense to me that link-only answers should be flagged since it sends them to the LQ queue where they can be handled for that specific reason.

However, I just had a moderator decline my NAA flag on this link-only answer, which leads me to believe that maybe link-only answers should not be flagged. Here's a screenshot of the answer for those of you with <10k rep:

enter image description here

These meta posts seem to be in stark opposition to each other, and I can't find any definitive rule for this in the Stack Overflow help.

Is it possible for someone to tell me definitively whether link-only answers should or should not be flagged as not-an-answer? Thanks!

Edit: I also noticed that answers can be flagged as "Very Low Quality". Are we expected to flag link-only answers for that instead of as "Not an answer"? This meta post seems to suggest using the VLQ flag instead of the NAA flag.

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    This post is the Alpha and the Omega of any and every NAA flag you raise, other posts contradicting that should be ignored. On the other hand, that post should have been deleted.
    – Braiam
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 3:34
  • @Braiam Thank you for your response. If we take the meta post you posted as the official word, it seems to say that link-only answers should not be flagged as not-an-answer. Should they be flagged as Very Low Quality then? I imagine we want to flag them as something so they get into the LQ queue for deletion, correct?
    – Maximillian Laumeister
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 3:43
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    What lead you to believe that? The only thing that it says about the so called "link only answers" is that you need to take the context into account when flagging as NAA's, because otherwise you should instead deal with the question.
    – Braiam
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 3:49
  • 1
    @Braiam I just read that post again, and I'm starting to understand the difference between very short answers with a link in them, and link-only-without-any-other-helpful-info answers. So if I'm getting this right, answers that are strictly link-only without any other helpful info whatsoever should be flagged as NAA. Then my real question is about the "other answers with links in them". The post you linked suggested "they should probably still be removed - or at very least, down-voted". The only other way for answers like that to be removed would be to flag as Very Low Quality, correct?
    – Maximillian Laumeister
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 3:58
  • @Braiam Also what would the correct action have been for my specific declined flag example? The answer was eventually marked for deletion, so downvoting without flagging doesn't seem like the right way to say "this answer should be deleted". But my NAA flag was declined, which leads me to believe that maybe the correct action would have been to raise the other applicable flag (VLQ) to kick it into a review queue. What are your thoughts?
    – Maximillian Laumeister
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 4:03
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    If, after removing the link markup, the post still attempts to answer a question, then it is an answer. As such, NaA flags would not be appropriate. However if, after removing the link markup, the post does not attempt to answer a question, then it is not an answer because it is only a link. I cannot see the answer in question because it has been deleted through the Low Quality Posts Review Queue, so I cannot speculate on the specific answer.
    – user4639281
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 6:20
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    Also confusing is that the Low Quality Posts review offers "answer is link only" as a reason for deletion.
    – SuperBiasedMan
    Commented Aug 24, 2015 at 11:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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It is an Answer:

You could use .push() to get the array you need.

Not an Answer:

This article will solve your issue

So

strip the markup

to each of those and we get

It is still an Answer

You could use .push() to get the array you need.

and it's still Not an Answer

This article will solve your issue.

You said

... I just had a moderator decline my NAA flag on this link-only answer ...

Mod was wrong or misclicked or something. It happens. That is definitely not an answer and has already been deleted.

Whenever in doubt about NAA's, read Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?

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