Can you have an answer without any code in the question?

Question

I was doing some reviewing earlier when I came across this question, which in my view doesn't have sufficient code to constitute a reviewable question. It essentially consists of a data structure short[3][3] and a description of how values can be stored/updated in it. Edward had already left a comment, so I voted to close and was going to move on when I noticed that the question had just been answered.

I find it hard to reconcile how you can have a code review without having any code to review (it also seems to be bad form to answer questions likely to be closed), so I downvoted, commented and flagged the question as 'Not an Answer'.

The question has indeed now been closed (as broken/code not written), however the answer flag was declined as 'a moderator reviewed your flag, but found no evidence to support it'.

On the face of it, the answer reads like it is answering a question, has attracted an upvote and it was useful to the asker (see comment on question). However, that's because it was providing an alternate solution to a design question, not because it was reviewing code.

• Is the decline just one of those things / bad timing (I'm pretty sure it was handled at the same time as a bunch of spam flags), so I should just keep doing what I'm doing?
• Is 'not an answer' the wrong flag to have used here, because it doesn't provide sufficient context to the mod handling the flag. Perhaps a custom flag as suggested here, with a description of why it's not an answer would have been more appropriate?
• Am I completely off base here and I should have just left the answer alone?

Answer 1

The question at hand should be (and is) closed. Off-topic questions should not be answered. It's as simple as that.

The answer should never have been written. It has been written by a new, inexperienced user. The answer will hopefully be removed and the question stays closed.

Alternate solutions are only acceptable if they support a review. In this case, there was no code. If there's no code, there can't be a review. Therefor, this question can't and shouldn't be answered.

Answer 2

I was the one declining the flag. My definition of "not an answer" might not match what others have. My definition is that if it is an attempt at answering the question, it is an answer.

I find it unreasonable to treat an off-topic question with "Hey, this question is off-topic, let's remove all the answers on it.

On the face of it, the answer reads like it is answering a question, has attracted an upvote and it was useful to the asker (see comment on question), however that's because it was providing an alternate solution to a design question not because it was reviewing code.

As you say, it was useful to the asker and to me that is more worth than always deleting answers because "it is not a review and cannot be a review because the question doesn't contain any code".

I honestly see very few gains with deleting answers to off-topic questions just for the sake of it. I found this answer to be a good one, so as a moderator I did not want to outright delete it. Of course the community is free to upvote and downvote the answer as it feels.

Answer 3

As I said it before, you should refrain from answering a question that's likely to get closed.

But what if somebody did answer? What to do with that?

The "not an answer" flag is not a good fit. If the question is "how to make carrot soup", and somebody answers with the recipe, it's simply not true that "it's not an answer". Probably it is an answer, it might even be a great answer, and really help the OP. Even though we don't want such content, saying it's "not an answer" is inappropriate.

Since the real problem is the question, not the answer, I suggest to target the question. Keep in mind that there are standard moderation tools to deal with bad questions, so if you have the privilege to vote to close, downvote, vote to delete, then use that, rather than flagging.