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The answer in question consists of a wall of texts which, to my inspection, does not contain an answer to the original question. I flagged it as not an answer, yet my flag was disputed.

So my question is 1a) why was it disputed (i.e. is it an actual answer?) 1b) what actually constitutes a "not an answer"?

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  • Ouch. I just tried to edit that wall of text. Hopefully it's a little better now.
    – Mithical
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 12:31
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    @Mithrandir - You're doing God's work, but that answer is beyond redemption.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 12:44
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    I won't post this as an answer since your main question is "why" rather than "who", but your flag was handled by the community through the review queues rather than by a moderator. You can see that two users voted to delete the post while two voted that it looks OK.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 21:21
  • @Randal'Thor - I see, thank you. I'll try to be more moderate with flags next time.
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 21:41

1 Answer 1

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Arguably this lump of text

"if like I said elves have dominant traits that would have a higher chance to pass through each generation instead of the human ones then technically Aragon would still be more elf."

answers the question asked.

'Not an answer' only really applies to answers that have little or no bearing on the question asked, for example if it's been posted to the wrong question.

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    That link says not even a partial answer to the actual question. Doesn't this one qualify?
    – Gallifreyan
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 10:07
  • @Gallifreian - If they'd solely posted the sentence above (with a bit of elaboration) it would make a solid answer.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 18, 2016 at 10:42
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    Looks like he’s floating a hypothesis (out of thin air) and then drawing a conclusion from it. Suppose somebody asks, “Where can I get some apples?” and somebody answers, “Well, if apple seeds were planted in Alaska, and the climate there is conducive to apple-growing, then you might be able to find apples in Alaska.”  That’s a syllogism where the inputs are pure speculation (and the second one is probably false).  Is that an answer? If a question asks yes or no, and an answer says, “Maybe” and presents some discussion, is that an answer?
    – Peregrine Rook
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 19:42
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    @PeregrineRook - Yes, that would be a perfectly good example of an answer that's worthy of downvote, but not closure as "not an answer".
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 20:18
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    Wow.  Let me go flooding the site with "maybe" answers; as long as my downvote/upvote ratio is less than 5, I'll gain rep!   :-)   ⁠
    – Peregrine Rook
    Commented Dec 19, 2016 at 20:36
  • @PeregrineRook - Intentionally posting crap answers may earn you some rep, but it'll also earn you an unsavoury reputation.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 25, 2016 at 20:12

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