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Tonight in the Triage review queue, I came across what looked at first sight like a run-of-the-mill low quality 'write my code for me' question. I was about to flag it as unsalvageable, since the line "Please let me know the code for it" at the end of the question implies the author is most likely not willing to edit the question into better shape.

But then I noticed that somehow, this question already had an answer, despite being so vague as to be practically unanswerable. Visiting the page, I saw that the answer started off as a list of frameworks, but then went on to talk about one particular framework in terms that sounded a lot like an ad for said framework. Both the question and answer posters currently have 1 reputation.

This could be a perfectly innocent if not very useful question and answer pair, but the advertisement-like text in the answer combined with the newness of both accounts raises the possibility that something spammy could be going on. I wouldn't want to raise a spam flag on something that doesn't actually violate the community guidelines, but didn't want to proceed with the review as normal and possibly let spam get by undetected either.

So instead, here is the link to the Q and A: Want to make my website into responsive using php so someone more experienced can make the final decision.

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    It's probably not an ad in this particular case, as Bootstrap really is a genuinely very popular framework. That said, spammers do totally do exactly what you're describing.
    – Ryan M Mod
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 4:37
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    Nah, it's very likely the OP just took the marketing-sounding text from the site. Bootstrap is a framework well-known, most folks in web development either know it or used it at leadt once. Commented May 21, 2023 at 4:38
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    The history of answers made by the OP (at least those that I can see) also suggests that while not providing high-quality contributions, they are unlikely to be a spammer. Commented May 21, 2023 at 4:40
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    At the very least, the answer is plagiarized :)
    – Andrew T.
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 5:28
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    "Bootstrap is one of the most popular CSS frameworks used by thousands of web developers across the world." copied verbatim from link dated "Sep 30, 2022" Also the list. Google likely candidates with & without double quotes.
    – philipxy
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 6:43
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    Sometimes it Quacks but it's not a Duck.
    – philipxy
    Commented May 21, 2023 at 7:05
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    If you think something is spam, flag it as such. There's a reason that multiple flags are required for automatic action. Commented May 21, 2023 at 7:26
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    @KarlKnechtel I don’t think that’s a good idea, if you’re sufficiently unsure, and there’s a sufficiently high likelihood that it’s not actually spam. If enough users mistakenly mark something as spam, it gets deleted, and gets thrown back at the poster, which hurts. Only flag for spam if you’re convinced that it’s spam. If you’re not, it’s fine to go ask in a chat room for other opinions, and why. Commented May 21, 2023 at 10:22
  • Complete English sentences (with articles included) is a red flag (for plagiarism). For instance, compare it to the three other answers. Further signals are late answers (though not in this case). Commented May 21, 2023 at 14:31
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    I mean, that's what Karl said, right, @Andreas? "If you think something is spam, flag it as such." Not "if you're hoping to game the system, flag it as such". Not "if you wish to defer the judgment on a post to other users, flag it as spam". As far as I understood it, he means "vote your conscience", and I agree with and endorse that advice. In particular, he means that you can vote your conscience without fear that your single vote will carry the weight of final judgment, as would be the case if you were a mod. So that's a load off your shoulders, but only vote if you mean it. Commented May 21, 2023 at 15:23
  • What you're seeing is effectively two chatbots interacting with each other. I wouldn't call that spam, but everyone's entitled to their opinion.
    – Ian Kemp
    Commented May 22, 2023 at 14:56

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