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A while back, I flagged https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/20270/25606 as 'Not an Answer', since it was an exact duplicate of the https://pm.stackexchange.com/a/17133/25606 answer for the same Question. My flag was disputed.

Was this just a moderation mistake, or did I flag it incorrectly? How should duplicated Answers be flagged?

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TL;DR

I've deleted the duplicate, but I can't really do more than speculate about why the flag was declined before, and offer some suggestions about how to flag this type of thing in the future.

Helpful/Disputed Flags

As I currently understand it, the helpful/disputed flags are the result of actions taken (or not) by the mods, rather than something the mods set directly. So, if a mod doesn't take the action the flag calls for, it's marked "disputed."

If other mods understand the system better than I do, they may chime in. That's the best explanation I can provide right now, though.

Flag Type

As for the type of flag, I would say that "Not an Answer" isn't really the right flag for this because moderators looking at the flag might not understand why you think it's not an answer. Instead, I would have flagged it with "in need of moderator intervention" and then provided a detailed explanation (including a link to the duplicate/original answer).

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    I had other flags that were marked as 'aged away' instead of 'disputed', which is why I assumed a moderator actively declined it. I suppose it's possible it displays differently for different flag types, though. Commented May 5, 2017 at 18:53
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    Checking on the flag history, two community users marked 'answer is ok' and one marked 'delete'. Could it be one of the reasons for the dispute or am I barking to the wrong tree? Anyways, as a good practice, I suggest to always mark flags as helpful, unless it's an extreme case. Commented May 6, 2017 at 18:20
  • @TiagoCardoso When I deal with a flag, there's no option to mark it helpful or not. Either the behavior has changed, or you need to pull me aside in chat. For me, the helpful/disputed behavior appears to be a result of whether or not I have handled a flag. Commented May 6, 2017 at 18:39
  • Exactly, CG - my comment was more generic, to anyone dealing with a flag :) Commented May 7, 2017 at 10:27

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