What to do with what is perceived as a bad answer?

Question

I'm aware this question is similar to What to do with low quality questions and answers but I think the particular case of bad answers that are still an attempt to answer is not discussed.

In SO they agreed that a bad attempt to answer (whether the answer is correct or not) is still an answer. So it should be downvoted, but not deleted. I had myself experimented declined NAA flags for this.

For example

Q: Identify this artist, with big ears, red jacket, in the 50s.

A1 (bad but correct):

J. Smith

A2 (bad and incorrect):

K. Smithee

A3 not an answer:

I like this artist too.

A4 (good and correct):

It's John Smith. He had a carrier peak in the 50s, with singles xxx and yyy. As you can see in this picture he had big ears and was often dressed with his red jacket. This interview narrates how he got his jacket from his best friend.

Analysis

A1 and A2 are Low Quality so they should probably be commented to help user to improve, then eventually downvoted or improved by another user.

A3 is clearly not an answer, so should be flagged as NAA, then deleted.

I've seen a lot of A1 and A2 deleted for NAA even they still are an answer and I don't think it's the proper Stack Exchange way to do.

Answer 1

EDIT: As my experience with the site has grown, my views on how to deal with low quality answers have also changed. My complete old answer can be found in the edit history; I believe that rewriting my answer in this manner is not a problem in this case since it did not receive any votes originally.

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The SE model is, in short, that:

1. Good answers get voted up and rise to the top.
2. Bad answers get voted down and fall to the bottom.
3. Off-topic posts get removed.

So, with this model in mind we should:

• downvote answers such as A1 and A2,

• delete answers such as A3, and

• upvote answers such as A4.

• More generously, we should additionally comment on answers like A1–A3 to let the authors know about our site norms, because such answers are usually given by newcomers who do not yet know our ways. Here is an easy way to add templated comments.

• If it's possible to salvage such answers, then we should edit to improve them, because that not only helps us maintain our site, it is also another way of educating the poster about the quality we expect in our answers.

My old answer ended much as above. Now with more experience I realise that this answer was incomplete for the following reason:

Many (in fact most) users who post low quality answers are one-time visitors to our site. Having found a question of interest through Google, they drop an answer with an unregistered account and then do not return. This means that the feedback we give them on answers like A1 and A2 via downvoting and commenting are not of use to them. So, such low quality answers persist, which is not a good thing.

Hence, I propose that in addition to the above steps, we should:

• follow up on low quality posts to see if they are improved by the OP. This means that

• if the OP does not return to the site within a week, or does return but makes no attempt to improve the answer, then we should flag the answer as VLQ. Note that the VLQ flag is only available on an answer for a week from the date it is posted.

The volume of activity on our site is currently small enough that it is easy to keep track of new posts for up to a week, so this should not be a problem.

What about for older low quality posts that have not been removed? For them I suggest that we should

• comment and downvote, so that attention may somehow be drawn to the OP. Many times the user happens to be active on other sites on the SE network, so when this is the case they notice the ping and return to improve the answer.

• If this does not draw their attention within a week, and the answer is not salvageable by editing, then flag it as NAA. Most low quality answers of the kind A1 or A2 are usually more fitting as a comment, and this is a use case that comes under the NAA flag.

These are my thoughts on how to handle low quality answers. Any thoughts and feedback are appreciated.