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The Late answers queue contains answers that were posted by new users much later than when the question was asked. Late answers tend to be seen by fewer people than answers posted soon after the question was asked, so this review queue helps ensure that these answers meet the same quality standards as all other answers.
Many late answers merely say “Thanks!” or are attempts to ask follow-up questions, and should be deleted. However, in other cases it may require specific knowledge of the topic. If you’re unsure whether the answer actually attempts to answer the question, use the “Skip” option.
Basic workflow
When reviewing, you may do one or more of several actions, or you may do none. Perform all actions that you deem necessary. For example, an answer may be complete and do a good job of answering the question, but need formatting help. In this case, edit to improve the formatting and – if you wish – upvote it.
- Choose Looks OK if the answer requires no intervention.
- Select Edit (or suggest an edit) if the answer is clear and within guidelines but could use some editing help to improve grammar, spelling, or formatting.
- Delete (or recommend deletion of) answers that don’t attempt to answer the question, are link-only, or are duplicates of other answers.
- Skip if you’re unsure about what to do.
Common late answers
Spam or self-promotion
- If the answer meets the description for acceptable self-promotion, add a comment mentioning this to reduce the chance of other reviewers marking it spam. If it does not, add a comment linking to the help center article and encourage the author to edit the post to meet our guidelines. If it unequivocally looks like spam, flag it as such.
Non-answers
- Answers thanking the author of the question or one of its answers, asking a new question, stating that they have the same problem, or asking for clarification from the author. These should be deleted.
For more information on how to edit effectively, please see our Help Center article about editing.
Some of the content of this page is adapted from information in our Meta Stack Exchange FAQ, which also contains more in-depth guidance if you are interested in reading more about this queue.