Why are some flags pending far longer than others?

Question

I do understand that WPSE is much smaller in scale than other networks and because of that has less moderators. Is this the (sole) reason why some flags are pending much longer than others?

In particular, I flagged this question as a duplicate of the very question OP mentions for - in my opinion - obvious reasons. This flag is still pending, about 13 days later.

Coming from the php tag of SO I know my fair share of bad questions, so I made a habit of flagging alot on WPSE. Seeing flags pending for many days though gives me somewhat of a bad feeling ..

(reading this again, I must say this is not meant as a rant but an honest question)

Answer 1

Flags usually take 5 people to sign off on them before action actually happens. This is so multiple members of the community can agree that a question needs to be closed or can be revised to bring it on topic. Exchanges like Stack Overflow has a ridiculous amount of users since it's the "catch all" of developmental questions which means there's more user participation which can make moderation a little easier. So on a relatively ( to Stack Overflow ) low traffic site, queues tend to get lengthy and it may take longer to close a question as the active users cycle through the flagged questions casting their vote.

Sometimes a mod may jump in and play judge, jury, and executioner to close a question but for the most part we try to leave it up to the community to decide whether a question should be closed.

Answer 2

The close as duplicate flag is treated like a normal close vote: it doesn't land on the mod's table, but in the normal close vote queue. And there it stays a few days until it's resolved.