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This is the comment:

First of all you didn't follow their advice - they specifically said a musical artist, of which Bieber is neither.

Why is this flag declined?

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    Oh my stars and garters. I had no idea that stupid comment o' mine blew up so much. I will say that I did have a point (a subtle) beyond just the snark, something around the specificity of the rules, but for the life of me I cannot recall what it was. – AviD♦ Jan 21 '16 at 20:50
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    The comment is technically correct. I don't see the problem with it. It should remain. – Mark Buffalo Jan 21 '16 at 21:01
  • Relevant question on another meta by the OP: meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/305932/… I wouldn't say this pattern is particularly inventive. – Deer Hunter Jan 25 '16 at 13:38
  • @DeerHunter Completely irrelevant actually. That's about SOMeta policy. Speaking of OS, i have 1,297 helpful flags and 8 declined. You need to dig deeper. Try my other SE sites (if you cant find anything i ll help you out). As for inventions: I don't intend to patent anything, merely trying to help clean up SE sites that I like. You know.. spending my free time just to help out future users, not giving a damn about rep/badges, valuing quality higher than rep I lose etc. The usual stuff. – user Jan 25 '16 at 13:56
  • @Fermiparadox - why don't you try answering questions first? Cleaning and moderation can wait until you understand the site better. – Deer Hunter Jan 25 '16 at 13:59
  • @DeerHunter Also, do let me know if discussing moderation policy is something that i should avoid in the future. – user Jan 25 '16 at 13:59
  • @DeerHunter No, you are wrong. It doesn't have to wait. When I see a "niec answer!! +1" I don't need to "learn the site". I mostly spend my time moderating instead of answering because I am not qualified to answer most of the time. I am neither a security expert, nor a professional programmer. – user Jan 25 '16 at 14:01
  • @Fermiparadox - If you look up my history you may find I'm not really eager to delete comments. That's it, really. – Deer Hunter Jan 25 '16 at 14:01
  • @Fermiparadox - ah, ok, whatever makes you tick. You may start by asking questions, then. Frankly, it looks like you're on a crusade. Good luck! – Deer Hunter Jan 25 '16 at 14:03
  • @DeerHunter I lack the fanaticism of a crusader so this description is inaccurate. This post is about learning the policy here (both me and other users). I did not make a post to encourage more strict rules (even though i am in favor of them, and i do suggest them in the comments below the answers). – user Jan 25 '16 at 16:46
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Because, sometimes, highly voted comments, even though they are not constructive are kept because the community wants it.

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    I strongly disagree with noise being allowed when the community considers it fun for two reasons: Firstly, what a community wants is not always a good idea (perhaps it's a terrible idea 90% of the time). Secondly, I can't imagine SO succeeding had it allowed youtube-like comments; draconian rules make for better quality. – user Jan 21 '16 at 17:19
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    Please define "highly voted comments" so that users can distinguish what they should or should not flag. – user Jan 21 '16 at 17:19
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    @Fermiparadox currently, the votes are at 130 - I'd say anything over 30, which is rare, would likely stay. I totally agree that noise is not a good idea, regardless of what the community wants, but as a mod, I have to balance what's good for the community, what people want, and not crafting the community in a way that suits me, but in a way that suits the community. There's no science to the process, just making rational and reasonable decisions. – schroeder♦ Jan 21 '16 at 17:57
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    SE sites aren't created to suit their community; their goal is to be useful to the millions of visitors. Suiting the community should be secondary. What's rational and reasonable can be very subjective. But then again, maybe the quality cost can be negligible compared to the popularity increase? Time will tell. – user Jan 21 '16 at 18:21
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    @Fermiparadox the millions of visitors ARE the community. – schroeder♦ Jan 21 '16 at 18:24
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    I'm sorry, but I feel compelled to vote this down. That was a horrible, not to mention offensive comment, and it would have been deleted immediately if it wasn't made by an abusive moderator. – AviD♦ Jan 21 '16 at 20:52
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    But I am just one voice in the wind, moderator or no - if so many people want the snark, I SAY LET THEM HAVE THE SNARK! – AviD♦ Jan 21 '16 at 20:52
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    @AviD Personally, I laughed so hard at that comment that co-workers came over to see it. IMO, the occasional bit of (well-placed) wit and humour makes the site more fun to use, and therefore helps user retention. – Mike Ounsworth Jan 21 '16 at 22:03
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    @MikeOunsworth ahh so its YOUR fault - all your coworkers went to upvote that comment... ;-) – AviD♦ Jan 21 '16 at 22:11
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    @MikeOunsworth Yeah, it's better that we're user-retentive than that other kind eh? – Iszi Jan 21 '16 at 22:30
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    It does pose a question so as to the credibility of the mods and reviewers when a moderator's comment is left intact but other users' relatively similar jokes will be remove. This has blown up because the question has blown up, and we'd have been quick to remove it otherwise. Keep in mind there's no downvote on comments, too. I'm not really fussed about the comment but I felt it wasn't meant to be there as well. That's really DMZ-ish. – Steve Dodier-Lazaro Jan 22 '16 at 10:34
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    I can see Schroeder's point, but I don't think the comment should stay. I think it's best to let the comment stand for now, and let everybody have their laughs (or tears). Then later, when the question loses attention, do a comment cleanup there and remove the mod's joke comment as part of it. – S.L. Barth - Reinstate Monica Jan 22 '16 at 13:02
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The content in question is not there because it belongs to a mod. It is there because it is highly upvoted.

I think I am the single greatest remover of comments on Sec.SE (almost 5000 comments deleted or moved to chat) so I am generally pretty harsh on 'noise' in comments, and my main criteria for removal are pretty much as follows:

  • rude, argumentative, confrontational
  • pointless
  • long discussion (gets shifted to chat)

In initial stages of a post, I'll remove because of option 1. If a post gets busy option 3 comes into play. Option 2 is also looked at, but high numbers of upvotes show that someone likes it. Many someones. So I'll typically leave it.

Later on if I'm cleaning up that post for any reason, it may be cleared out, but if it has high enough votes I may still leave it there.

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    "upvotes show that someone likes it." - That's indeed an indication of being liked by many, but there is no indication of how many dislike such comments (since comments can't be downvoted). – user Jan 22 '16 at 18:23
  • Comments can get up votes or flags. The vast majority of comments have less than 3 of either. Anything more takes it into exception territory, at which point we take a call on it as described. – Rory Alsop♦ Jan 26 '16 at 9:20

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