@Rory Alsop Moderator attention needed.

Thanks @ab2

@RoryAlsop I have a learning opportunity question! The "answers" to the bird questions were in the review queues last night. Obviously I saw the pattern and knew something wrong was happening, but wasn't sure what to do. I checked the "spam room" and didn't see mention there. Should I have flagged them as "not an answer"? Recommend deletion in the queue? Flag one for mod in order to draw attention to all? Ping you in here, which it looks like @ab2 did. Leave them alone until a mod saw them?

On the question page, I voted to delete one. Should I have done that to all of them?

I looked at the most recent reviewers and none of them had reviewed anything yesterday, so I think I may have happened to see them soon after they were posted. Some of our usuals, including you, live where it was the middle of the night, so I didn't want to ping anyone. It didn't necessarily hurt the site to wait a few hours anyway, right? The OP made the mess all at once, so it wasn't as if they could have been stopped. There was nothing vulgar, just annoying.

By the way, is that what a "troll" is? I wasn't sure if a troll is a person who does what this did, or dumps a bunch of self-promotion links, or both.

Also, how does a post get into the VLQ queue? I flagged a post to that when I first got to the site a long time ago, and it was declined because it hadn't needed mod intervention. I then saw it in the queue, so I'd like to know how things get there.

Thanks!

@Aravona Even though you don't spend much time on the site, I'm really glad you pop in here and keep up the friendships. I'd miss you if you didn't do that.

@Sue Flagging the as spam/nonsense is best. If enough members flag, they get automagically deleted and the poster ends up with a block. I would have seen the flags earlier but was driving kids to various locations so didn't see the flags until midday-ish.

Not a troll - trolling is generally trying to upset people or cause arguments

various flags can put something into VLQ queue, including automated flags

@Sue Not an answer would have worked too

@Sue I suggest you post the "what to do" part of your message to Rory on Meta. I wasn't sure if I should flag, downvote or ping Rory, so I did the first two on about 8 posts and then pinged Rory.. I'd post it myself, but I just got back from Walk-In Clinic after being stung at least 9 times by yellowjackets while gardening, and I am feeling languid. No need to worry; I am fine.