What is the correct reason to use when flagging one/two liner answers which are without any sources?

Question

Recently I have observed a trend where experienced users are simply posting one-two liners as answers. Basically those are comments posted as answers and obviously they are low quality as answers.

Some new users, who do not have privileges to post comments, often end up doing the same mistake, but here the answers were posted intentionally and not by mistake.

Users, who have sufficient privileges of posting a comment, are posting such answers for some unknown reasons.

I had flagged few such answers previously using custom reasons but the flags kept pending and pending. So, I assume that I have made the jobs of the moderators difficult by probably choosing wrong reasons?

• Shall we be flagging such answers as simply low quality? Or what should be the correct flag reason here?

Answer 1

Well, as not particular example is being discussed, I'm providing generic answer:

First of all, one-liner answers are discouraged. On the Stack Exchange, we emphasize on quality answers. So, whenever we see one-liner answer, we should put comment linking How do I write a good answer? If such answers are upvoted and if question reached HNQ, this would be problematic^r1 as visitors get wrong idea that one-liner answers are well accepted (users aren't taking time & effort to write good answers). So, we should not upvote them regardless answer is correct or not.

Now, talking about flagging, You can flag them as VLQ but as pointed out VLQ flag may not be available if answer is upvoted or old (This again indicates that such answers shouldn't be upvoted.) To discourage we can downvote them and also cast delete vote if it is feasible.

Worth to note that here mostly such answers would be unsourced. As titled " flagging one/two liner answers which are without any sources?" Considering the policy of citing sources, you can always flag them with custom reason saying no sources/references are cited and requires to put "Citation needed" post notice.

Note that as I mentioned in comment moderators usually don't take an action on VLQ flags since that is mostly handled by community through review queue. Otherwise you can flag them with custom reason indicating the problem that is answer sounds like comment (you may use flag Not and Answer for that) or the post doesn't provide sufficient explanation or unsourced.

We've couple of suitable post notice which will be added by moderators:

• insufficient explanation

  We're looking for long answers that provide some explanation and context. Don't just give a one-line answer; explain why your answer is right, ideally with citations. Answers that don't include explanations may be removed.

• citation needed

  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.

By the way, if your flags keep pending and you feel urgent action is required, you can ping us on moderation room.

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Special/exception case What to do with those type of questions whose answers are simple yes or no?

^r1 if one-liner answer is working then there should be problem with question. We expect question should be clear and detailed so-that it gets quality answers.

Ref: Should we be more strict about one-line answers?

Answer 2

This is the custom reason I used recently to flag a 2-line answer with zero references:

no references, sounds like a personal opinion; should be deleted or be converted to a comment

It was deleted after a couple of days although I felt the mods should have acted on it quickly.

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Here, the main problem appears to be the few users on the site who will upvote anything as long as it agrees with their views. To these users, references used in support of the answers (e.g., Wikipedia, Quora, some random blog or statements made solely from authority or reputation gained on this site) do not matter. So before you get to read and flag them as very low quality (VLQ), these 1- and 2-line answers with 0 references have already garnered 4-5 upvotes. With so many upvotes the system will not let you flag them as low quality as it's been duped into thinking these are really high-quality answers. Since VLQ is no longer available on these answers, you are left with these other flag options:

If you flag them as not an answer (NAA) which IMO is the next best thing to do, either by mistake, or on purpose hoping other reviewers see them as 'low quality' and vote them down or delete, there are other users who will argue that NAA is not the correct flag reason to use because the answer is "technically correct" but simply lacking references. These users will dispute your flag.

And now you are left with the last option which is to flag for moderator intervention which comes with its own risks. But if you care for the quality of the site, you should continue flagging such answers irrespective of the votes it has received or your flags potentially getting rejected by mods. You do this by providing long explanations which makes it really tough for mods to reject your flags outright.

Also, instead of flagging, sometimes you can also use the vote to delete option available to high-rep users (4k+). Note that your own downvote can make the delete (or the VLQ flag) option appear on the answer. But if you have taken an oath to not downvote VLQ answers, this option won't work for you.