@Shog9 Well to start with, neither of delete and convert are ideal. If the link is alive and relevant, an ideal solution would be to edit the answer and add a summary of referred content. The way I see it, flagging link-only answers is considered only because edit is much more effort...

...Let's be clear on compromises we make: I think with flagging we expect something like 10 answers to be wiped out while relying on "ideal" editing approach would leave us with something like 1 answer being corrected into proper shape while remaining 9 still hanging on there, making prominent broken windows: "oh look, no matter what they say in FAQ / hoe to answer, link-only answers are allowed to stay and bring posters rep and badges"...

Let's be clear that primary purpose of flagging in this case is to remove broken windows that are hard to fix the other way...

Okay, let's see how it could work with moderator choosing different ways to act on flag. If the link-only answer is converted to comment, any reader can see that the link has been referred to before, but in a way that wasn't sufficient to form a valid answer. If it is just deleted, it is visible only to OP, mods and 10Kers...

With above said, I would consider as main use case a scenario when someone else comes and adds another (valid) answer based on given link, only properly summarized. In the case of convert conversion related matters of attribution resolve in a pretty straightforward way, as explained above...

With straightforward deletion, things tend to be somewhat more complicated - though not too much: the worst case scenario I envision would be someone coming to meta complaining about a "source of inspiration hidden from majority of readers" - but, thanks to "universal reference" we've got for link-only answers, attempts to somehow promote / validate these won't be supported

You see, it seems to return back to where I began - I prefer conversion over deletion but not by a large margin

@DanielFischer There's a banner on the election page: "Election closes in 4 days. 139,116 voters were eligible, 5,620 visited the site during the election, 30,360 visited the election page, and 1,291 voted"

Maybe I'm turning blind, but I can't see that.

Oh hey. Guess that's a moderator thing. Well, 1291 people voted so far. :P

Once the election closes, everyone should be able to see that part as well.

Last election had something like 4-5 thousand voters, iirc?

4426

So it looks as though we might beat that :)

I idly wonder if time of year affects turnout as well. Folks probably take more vacations in June?

Probably. But July or August would be more vacational.

do people ever take a vacation from SE anyways?

It's pretty easy to work into your day for half an hour or so

@Purmou I barely avoid checking in when I take vacation and my job is SE, so I'm not a good example. :) But I assume people with families and whatnot do it better. Or that more people check SO from work to begin with.

what is the tablet of choice for you guys?

I don't have a tablet.

would you consider high resolution important?

Probably not, to be honest. So long as the display was clear, the touch screen was responsive, and apps weren't sluggish, I'd be fine.

But I'm the kind of person who doesn't think twice about watching standard-def content on her HDTV :)

"top 4% this month" - That's the best I can remember seeing on my own profile. Then again, when I was more actively posting it might have been better. But I can't remember it =)

I'm sorry I joined here.

@Glock'sBullet This chatroom? Not a problem. Everyone's welcome.

had to join with an excuse.... :P

if it's not that good i'll try to improve it!

i'm sorry i'm late?

I wouldn't spend too much effort on that... excuses just magically happen here. :)

well, I'm off to play some Mass Effect 3. Enjoy your excuse-filled evening, everyone.

@AnnaLear when you have a moment?

Psh, we all know that girls don't play video games. rolls eyes

@jcolebrand As promised, my first vote went to Andrew Barber. I actually didn't vote for myself at all.

Heh, I just noticed that the falir image for Meta says "profile for animuson at Meta Stack Overflow, Q&A for the Stack Exchange engine powering these sites" - but in the context of my website, "these sites" doesn't really make any sense

@PopularDemand why would you turn down such an exciting photo opportunity?

@Pekka웃 How do you know he voted for himself? Could have voted for Ralph Nader, couldn't he?

@Pekka웃 Which one in that picture is Popular Demand?

Ah, right, I suppose I should cast my votes...

7 hours later...