A post should be flagged as "very low quality" when it's not possible to edit it to make clear what the post means. The flag should not be used, for example, when:
- The OP doesn't capitalize I when referring to the first person singular.
- The OP doesn't use the correct punctuation, and writes run-on sentences.
- The OP writes a verb using the third person singular when it should not be used (e.g. writes instead of write).
- The OP doesn't use the correct tense for a verb.
If a single post is very low quality, then:
- If it is a question, it should be voted to be closed as "not a real question" (or flagged to be closed for the same reason). It's now possible to flag a question as "very low quality" once it gets closed.
- If it is an answer, it should be flagged as "not an answer."
The "very low quality" flag should be used when the user keeps posting low quality posts. The flag is a flag for removal for the post, and (implicitly) for the user who posted it.
It should not be used to mean, for example, "I cannot be bothered to edit this post because the user keeps writing i instead of I," or when a user posts a wrong answer because misunderstanding the question being asked; in such cases, a down-vote is sufficient. Once an answer has a negative score, 3 votes from 20k users delete it.
Flags should not used for technical inaccuracies, as moderators (to whom the flags are directed) should not be called to judge the accuracy of an answer.
If the moderators find evidence of any problem with that post, and they take action, the flag is automatically marked as helpful; this happens, for example, when the "very low quality" flag is used for spam, for a comment that has been posted as answer, or a completely different question that has been post as answer. If the moderators don't find any evidence of problems with the post, they will probably decline the flag.
About deleting answers, the FAQ reports when answers are deleted, and it lists the following cases:
- commentary on the question or other answers
- asking another, different question
- "thanks!" or "me too!" responses
- exact duplicates of other answers
- barely more than a link to an external site
- not even a partial answer to the actual question
