<p>Let me share some thoughts on this thread.</p>

<p>I recently dismissed one of your flag on a reply to <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/631/standard-deviation-of-standard-deviation/640#640">Standard deviation of standard deviation</a>.
You may have noticed that I added a personal message explaining why. Below is a copy:</p>

<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4zHxB.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>The incriminated post can be considered as a response as it specifically points to a reference that might not be easily found with naive Google queries, at least for someone totally new to the subject. Users coming across this thread may well find in this reply a first start. Some of the other responses on this thread, including yours, demonstrate that more technical points can be made. Now, whether this is a good response or not is a matter of voting, not flagging. </p>

<p><strong>About "barely more than a link".</strong><br>
List of possible reasons for <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/faq#deletion">post removal</a> is headed with</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Answers <strong>that do not fundamentally answer the question</strong> may be removed  </p>
</blockquote>

<p>(emphasis is mine)</p>

<p>This site aims to build a collection of self-contained and sustainable responses to specific questions. "Dangling" links or pointers to ephemeral resources should be avoided; link to authoritative references are to be preferred (I'm not saying that Wikipedia falls under this category). If a reply correctly points to a perennial source (that's the case for Wikipedia), and answers the question in an unambiguous manner, then I do not see why it would not be judged as a <em>valid response</em>. If users do not consider it as a <em>good response</em>, it is likely it won't attract many upvotes. (We even have badges for highly contrasted votes on question and answer.)</p>

<p>I for one prefer more elaborated replies, even if they are built around an external reference (when it is appropriately quoted). But I am not the only user on this site, and other users may express a different opinion on what constitutes a good response, when to vote up, etc. Let's go for it: community voting is not perfect, but it certainly helps to filter good replies. If you feel that an answer has low quality, you can leave a comment and/or propose a better response, and express your opinion with your vote. I hope this point was made clear by @whuber in his first reply.</p>

<p>In this particular case, the supplied answer (from a very active user in the first 6 months of CV life) seems acceptable, yet it might be improved. Users with 2k rep can edit posts, by the way. <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/faq#editing">Community edits</a> are one way to enhance the quality of this site. In all cases, community voting is the way to regulate a thread or moderate older ones to account for new replies.</p>
