@e-sushi why did you (with DrLecter) delete this answer: crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/10602/…

Doesn't seem like it fulfills any of the reasons for deletion: crypto.stackexchange.com/help/deleted-answers

I'm for undeletion as well.

@otus Argh! So much for trying not to stumble into such a pitfall within the first 24 hours after election. My bad – yes, you (and CodesInChaos) are absolutely right. Obviously I´ve tripped that wire (more or less accidently) after the Dr. delete-voted it. Re-checking my mistake, I quickly reverted the deletion (of course). I´ll be sure to tripple-check my clicks from now on… Thanks for the heads-up.

I on the other hand am fine with its deletion

It doesn't really address the meat of the question, and that information is contained in Ricky Demer's comment

But - I can see that there is some disagreement on it, so whatever... :P

@Reid I understand where you´re coming from. Yet, I´m afraid that an answer which merely rephrases what has been posted before doesn´t immediately provide enough reason for deletion. (That was solely based on a mistake on my side.) Now, don´t get me wrong… I´m not saying it´s the highest quality answer I´ve ever seen at Crypto.SE; but I´ve surely seen far worse Q&As the past few years. Guess you did too, didn´t you? ;)

@Reid, that just makes it a mediocre answer. Bad or even wrong answers should be handled with downvotes. Deletion is for things that aren't answers.

(That's my interpretation, at least.)

I agree with @otus, it tries to solve the question, so it should be handled by the community with upvotes/downvotes, comments, etc

It is also related to what I mention in this meta post: meta.crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/404/…

this guy tried to answer something that was previously mentioned in the comments and maybe that contributed to the answer being deleted (I assume)

if that was the case, I think it was not fair

@otus This is definitely correct. When someone flags something as "not an answer", from a flag handling perspective one of the possible "decline" reasons is "flags should not be used to indicate technical inaccuracies, or an altogether wrong answer"

@mikeazo I think the line between "attempts to answer, but is wrong" and "doesn't attempt to address the question, but rambles about unrelated things", the latter of which I flagged a few times (since I felt the answer was off-topic in some sense) but got declined (presumably by you), is too thin. How do you differentiate between those cases? Isn't a post that may have been well-intended but does not address the question at all (hence is literally "not an answer" to the question) flaggable?

@yyyyyyy It is definitely tough. There are definitely areas of crypto that I would have no idea if the answer is really just rambling about unrelated things or an attempt to answer but wrong.

So there are definitely situations where something might be clear to you, but not clear to one of the mods.

In those situations, I try to look on Meta.SE to see if there is any good guidance.

Like this

@e-sushi I am quite sure that the first delete vote was not mine. But if the answer should receive more downvotes just undelete it ... i'm fine with that :)

@mikeazo Thanks! Writing a "custom" reason for doubtful cases (as recommended in the answer to the question you linked) seems like a good idea.

@DrLecter Already reverted the “delete” a few hours ago. As for voting – you´re absolutely correct!

Didn´t cross-check some written words… from now on, I´ll be sure to “verify first and talk later.”

@DrLecter Guess you may now kick me if you feel the urge to get even… once, that is. ;)

The tricky area with not-an-answer is if it's an answer, but to a different question.

@CodesInChaos That's pretty much what I meant. My least favorite instance of this is people answering a question of the form "In what way is $construction broken?" with a one-liner like "Use $something_else" (typically without any comment as to why). Of course it may be valid advice, but it is not helpful at all regarding the original question.