6

Some of my recent flags asking for citation notice on a couple of old answers from 2014 are declined. In the decline reason, the mod is pointing me to an answer about deleting old unsourced answers from 2014 (when all I asked for was a citation banner). His reasoning appears to be incorrect.

https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2078

no references, needs a banner – sv. 2 days ago

declined - Current policy (https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/827/277) doesn't apply to the unsourced answer of olden days.

https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/a/2062

no references, needs a banner – sv. 2 days ago

declined - Don't flag unsourced answer of olden days, as mentioned in policy (https://hinduism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/827/277), it needs to be decided on Let's delete all old answers from early days of the site that lack any references at all

I have flagged several other answers from 2014 & early 2015 which looked like comments or were lacking any references. Other mods didn't have a problem adding a citation banner (e.g., see this and this).

As a result of this, this is what I'm seeing for the last couple of days:

enter image description here

Can this ban be reversed as it looks like the mod acted in error? What is the current policy on how flags on old unsourced answers should be handled? 'Don't flag unsourced answers from 2014'? If yes, why are different mods handling flags in different way?

2
  • 3
    In theory, the flags for 2014 answers should Not be declined, because citing sources rule is existing since 2014 itself. See this, this, this. Sorry I am putting answer as a comment because this question should be better answered by Mods or CM. :-)
    – iammilind
    Sep 15, 2018 at 1:26
  • 1
    @iammilind Go and write an answer. Any user can answer such questions not only moderators.
    – Sarvabhouma
    Sep 15, 2018 at 10:26

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
7

Ah, well, the purpose of "Citation Needed" post-notice reads as:

Some of the information contained in this post requires additional references. Please edit to add citations to reliable sources that support the assertions made here. Unsourced material may be disputed or deleted.

And according to our policy, after adding post-notices, unsourced answers are subjected for deletion. However, deleting old unsourced answers is the different issue as clarified in the policy post and also we have it as a separate issue Let's delete all old answers from early days of the site that lack any references at all . So, thinking that they're not subjected for deletion your flags were declined but yes, "citation needed" post-notice can be added to them also.

Q. Can this ban be reversed as it looks like the mod acted in error?

No, sorry that can't be reversed. Btw, regarding the flag ban, it was be due to some of flags declined (apart from these two, other NAA flags were declined since that answers attempt to answer questions and hence can't be considered as 'not an answer'). Anyway, that ban was temporary and now there's no such issue. Besides, your recent flags on unsourced answers are marked as helpful and post-notice has been added :)

Q. What is the current policy on how flags on old unsourced answers should be handled?

(We've recently made it clear that) such post-notices should be added to those old unsourced answers though they'll not be considered for deletion for now. As a correction, post notice is also added to the posts you mentioned in the question.

5
  • 'those old unsourced answers' - what is old? Is there a definite timeline?
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 8, 2018 at 17:32
  • What about 'Can this ban be reversed as it looks like the mod acted in error?'
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 8, 2018 at 17:32
  • @sv. Are you talking about marking your declined flags helpful?
    – Pandya Mod
    Oct 9, 2018 at 1:16
  • Yes. If you could answer the specific questions I asked by quoting each one it would be helpful to me and everyone else who flags unsourced answers. 'We've recently made it clear that such post-notices should be added to those old unsourced answers though they'll not be considered for deletion for now.' - was there an announcement about this?
    – Say No To Censorship
    Oct 9, 2018 at 2:35
  • @sv. updating the answer to include your queries.
    – Pandya Mod
    Oct 9, 2018 at 2:50

You must log in to answer this question.

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