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I had just failed a review audit for the first time which had the following post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/18868306/2074608

Image of failed review audit - low quality posts

Shouldn't this be a comment, and if this was a comment, be flagged as "obsolete" as the questioner has updated the question? I'd really like an explain why this is an acceptable answer on Stack Overflow.

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16

This is just one of those unfortunate situations where everything occurred out of order.

The answer was selected as an audit candidate because of its upvotes, which most likely occurred before the question was modified. During a review audit, you're not shown those votes.

When evaluating low-quality posts, ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Is it spam?
  2. Is it "thanks?"
  3. Is it "I have the same problem?"
  4. Is it an attempt to ask a brand new question, or
  5. Is it an attempt to answer the original question in any of its original incarnations, no matter how feeble the attempt, even if the answer is wrong?

If the answer to the first 4 is no, and the answer to 5 is yes, it doesn't merit deletion.

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    6 unsure - skip Commented Oct 15, 2013 at 11:58
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    For (5), doesn't a feeble attempt imply low quality? So, if was a feeble attempt to answer the current question, it would merit deletion, but not if it was a feeble attempt to answer the original question? Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 12:19
  • @Dukeling: "Low quality" is reserved for posts that are unsalvageable by editing (i.e. embarrassingly bad). Deletion is reserved for posts that are actively harmful to the site. Commented Oct 19, 2013 at 16:17

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