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Review Queues

How moderators can use the Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise content Review Queues.

Joel Bradley avatar
Written by Joel Bradley
Updated over a week ago

Applies to: Enterprise

This documentation is for Stack Overflow Enterprise. Free, Basic, and Business users can access their documentation here. Find your plan.


Overview

Because users rely on your Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise (SOE) site for accurate, timely information, it's important that its content remains fresh and up-to-date. The SOE Review Queue helps users locate content (questions and Articles) that may be in need of updating. Automated SOE processes, as well as users themselves, can flag posts for inclusion in Review Queues.

Your personal Review Queue

SOE creates a Review Queue for each user. Your Review Queue will show you a list of posts, allowing you to review them one at a time. As you step through flagged posts, you can perform various actions such as vote, comment, or flag. You can also skip any review, or remove a post from your queue after determining that no action is needed.

A post may appear in the Review Queues of multiple users. If you remove a post from your queue, it may still appear in the queues of other users. SOE determines when to remove a post from all queues based on how the post was flagged and the type of review actions performed on it.

The Stats tab of the Review Queue shows statistics on actions taken. The History tab shows a history of actions taken. You can filter the action history by your own reviews, as well as display skipped content.

Review Queue types and location

Click the paper and checkmark button in the top right corner of any page to access the Review Queues. You can view individual queues on this page, or you can select All queues. You may not be able to access certain queues based on your site privileges; moderators and site administrators can access all Review Queues.

Each Review Queue gives you a unique perspective on site content. Here are the SOE Review Queues, and the content they present.

Late Answers, First Questions, and First Answers

The Late Answers queue contains answers which were posted much later than the question, which means the answers are typically not viewed as often. The First Questions and First Answers queues contain the first few posts by new users who may not be familiar with the site's operation, which means the quality and/or relevance of their posts may warrant review.

In these queues, you can edit the post, flag it, upvote or downvote it, add a comment, or upvote an existing comment. Taking one of these actions activates the I'm Done button, allowing you to complete the review. If you feel that the post is fine as-is, and you don't want to vote on it, click No Action Needed. If you're unsure about the post, click Skip.

Definitions

Late answers Questions that are not deleted or locked, have 30 days between the question creation date and the answer, and the user providing the answer has less than 10 rep.

First questions/first answers The first question or answer by a user that hasn’t been locked, deleted, or closed.

Low Quality Posts

The Low Quality Posts queue contains posts which were automatically determined by SOE to be of low quality. This queue also contains posts that other users have flagged as low quality, or answers flagged as improper. If you feel that a flagged post is acceptable, post a comment (optional) and click Looks OK.

If the post is acceptable except for minor formatting or grammatical errors, click Edit to improve the post. When you save your edits, SOE automatically applies Looks OK status to the edited post.

If you can't improve the post enough to salvage it, you have two options depending on whether the post is a question or answer:

  • Close for questions Lets you choose a description for the problem that makes the question inappropriate.

  • Delete for answers Lets you choose a pre-written comment as a courtesy to the author of the post you're deleting. SOE will post the comment on your behalf, unless the same comment already exists.

Definitions

Low quality post A post that meets a general heuristic and contains a number of words matching posts statistically determined to be of low value. Also, the post has not received any upvotes or an accepted answer.

Close Votes and Reopen Votes

Questions that may need closing/reopening appear in these queues. The "Close" queue lists questions with active close votes or close flags. This queue is one of the best ways to find posts that need closing. The "Reopen" queue lists questions with active reopen votes, as well as questions users have improved or edited after closing.

These queues present four options. You can improve a question flagged for closing by clicking Edit, which will automatically remove it from the queue. You can vote to close a question flagged for closing, or to reopen a question flagged for reopening. If you're unsure about a post, you can (and should) click Skip to allow another user to review it. Finally, you can choose Leave Open or Leave Closed. If enough people vote to leave a question open or closed, the question's status remains unchanged and SOE removes it from the close/reopen queue.

Definitions

Close A question has received at least one close vote from users and does not appear in any other Review Queue.

Reopen A question has received at least one reopen vote, or a user has edited the post since the previous close was established to be binding.

Suggested Edits

Users with low reputation can edit posts, but SOE doesn't accept their edits directly. Instead, SOE places their edits in this queue. When two users approve the edits, SOE publishes the edits. If you review edits and feel they improved the post, you should approve the edits. You should reject edits if:

  • They're too minor, or were not necessary.

  • They're vandalism, making the post worse.

  • They radically change the post, to the degree that it may no longer reflect the original author's intent.

  • They're invalid (for example: edits that should have been a comment or answer instead).

  • They're plagiarism (for example: the edit is copied and pasted from an external source without block quotes or attribution).

You can also Improve a suggested edit if you see other issues that you can fix. While applying your edits, you can choose to mark the original edits as "helpful". If you don't, SOE will retain your edits while rejecting the original edits.

NOTE: If you reject too many edits from other users, SOE will block you from suggesting edits for a while.

Definitions

Suggested edits A question, answer, or Tag Wiki has been edited by a user who doesn’t have the reputation to make unreviewed edits on that content type.

Content Health

The Content Health feature automatically flags potentially out-of-date content for review and action. Administrators, Moderators, or users with reputation above the Access to Content Health threshold can access the Content Health Review Queue.

Based on algorithms that run daily, SOE populates this queue with Questions and Articles it determines are likely to be outdated. This queue does not depend on manual voting or flagging.

Filtering and actions

You can filter content in the Content Health queue by up to three tags, post type (Article or question), and title.

You can take the following actions from within the Content Health queue to manage flagged content:

  • Verify Mark the post as current and relevant.

  • Edit Improve the post to ensure its accuracy.

  • Mark obsolete Mark a post as outdated, but keep it around for reference. This locks the post from further editing by regular users, demotes it within search, and marks it as outdated.

  • Go to question Visit the original question in a new tab to take actions such as closing, managing answers, and more. SOE will update the question’s health status accordingly.

  • Share feedback Leave feedback regarding how the original Article author or editors could improve it (Articles only).


If you need further support or have questions, contact your site administrator.

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