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When I see answers that are nothing more than "see this link for the answer" I usually write a comment saying that they need to actually answer the question here because link only answers aren't allowed. I'll normally also flag it as a link only answer. On the other sites my flags are accepted as helpful, and the posts are frequently deleted. Meta Stack Exchange says we should flag these answers.

When I last flagged a link only answer here it was declined with this message: "declined - flags should only be used to make moderators aware of content that requires their intervention"

So are we not meant to flag these answers here? What should we do with them?

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  • Relevant: meta.scifi.stackexchange.com/q/5052/20533 It is good, encouraged even, to add in details to an answer that only provides a link. While link-only answers are still bad, if they are salvageable it is okay to edit in the appropriate content (Or if you feel it's worth your time, to write your own answer with that content).
    – Zibbobz
    Oct 3, 2014 at 19:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Look at the current state of the answer. It's no longer a link-only post, another user edited it to add the relevant details. Your flag presumably raised before the edit, and dismissed afterwards. Sorry for the false negative.

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  • Fair enough. So the general SE rule against link only answers stands?
    – curiousdannii
    Oct 3, 2014 at 15:37
  • @curiousdannii Aye.
    – user1027
    Oct 3, 2014 at 16:49

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