NAA-Flag was declined but the post is not an answer

Question

I flaged this answer as Not an answer because it's a link only answer.

According to Meta.SE those "answers" are no answers and shall be flaged and maybe removed.

But my flag was declined from a moderator:

"It technically is an answer. A bad answer? Yeah... but an answer never the less."

C'mon - is this serious? Then I can also post Go home crying to a question, because it's technically an answer. A bad answer? Yeah... but an answer never the less.

I have no problem with declined flags when the decision is understandable but this justification is insert_bad_word_here.

Answer 1

There's a difference.

The answer that was given was basically a link only answer. We frown on those. But they are answers. Bad ones. A good answer stands on its own and doesn't just link externally (this actually links internally...) This particular one was actually close to what OP wanted - he even commented on the fact that it was close, but not close enough because of a condition (a condition he actually didn't state in his question, at that!)

So yes, I think the answer was a poor one. But it was an answer. It did make an honest attempt to answer the question, and was evaluated and responded to by the OP. That definitely qualifies as an answer.

If you answer "Go home crying" it's not an answer because it is not relevant to question (unless you're on cooking.se and someone asks how you should handle onions spilling in your car or something :) )