How should moderators respond to 'not an answer' flags?

Question

The most common flag reason that I get is 'not an answer'. Sometimes this is clear cut - its spam or a 'thank you' or something like that. Regularly its a judgement call as to whether something is strictly an answer.

The problem with flagging such posts is that I (and other mods and high rep users) are presented with two (not particularly nice) choices, after taking some effort to read the Question and all the Answers including the one being flagged:

Either:

• Delete the post - I don't have any facility to put it 'on hold' like questions pending discussion

or

• Enter into a discussion with the poster about the quality of the answer.

What should I do?

Answer 1

This is what voting is for!

In the case of the 'judgement call' answers I am going to err on the side of the person writing the answer.

If something is clearly not an answer - e.g. its a thank you post, or unrelated in some way - I will happily respond to the flag and delete the post.

If something is clearly a misdirected comment on someone else's post - this is usually easy to spot, and most often comes from someone with low reputation who cannot comment, I will convert this to a comment.

If the post seems to otherwise reasonably relate to the question, I will decline the flag and leave the post. If its a bad post or doesn't seem to actually provide an answer - please vote it down. I'm proposing that I don't delete these.