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I flagged a post "decode this and get the answer" which only contained gibberish.

I flagged the post as OFFTOPIC, because I believed it to be some sort of crypto-puzzle that should go to puzzling.stackexchange.com

The flag was declined and is now mistakenly referencing What is the concept of Refresh in Linux, if there is so

I did NOT flag the latter post.

As long as the declined flag is hanging in the air, I will not be able to raise new flags.

How do i get rid of the declined flag that is hanging in the empty now?

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Reset to default
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As far as I can see, the link that you provided goes directly to a deleted answer containing the gibberish "decode this and get the answer" text. This is the answer that you flagged.

Since you have less than 10k reputation, you can not see the deleted answer, so you're taken to the associated question instead.

As for why your flag was declined, I'm not 100% sure as I don't think I was involved. The post was however deleted as spam/offensive, which was not what you flagged it with. My guess is (and I'm doing vigorous hand-waving here) that a moderator looked at it, and flagged it as spam/offensive themselves, which in turn automatically declined your flag.

The flag is not "hanging in the air". It was handled (declined) and you should not currently be banned from flagging other posts, although you may receive a warning saying that your most recent flag was declined.

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  • Any idea on how to remove a flag from a post that was deleted?
    – markgraf
    Oct 11, 2019 at 9:38
  • @markgraf As long as your future flags are not also declined, there should be nothing to worry about. You're not currently banned from flagging posts.
    – Kusalananda Mod
    Oct 11, 2019 at 10:41
  • I tried flagging a post and couldn't. That's how I noticed the problem. I hope I do not need to gain 10k rep in order to unflag the deleted post :-) ...
    – markgraf
    Oct 11, 2019 at 11:06
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    @markgraf Your profile currently tells me that you are "Not banned from flagging" and that you are "Warned when flagging". A single declined flag will not ban you from flagging. Are you misinterpreting the warning as a ban?
    – Kusalananda Mod
    Oct 11, 2019 at 13:11
  • Maybe? I'm redirected to a review page with previous flags. One helpful, one rejected. But I don't see the third flag, I wanted to make. I'll doublecheck the next time I see something flag-worthy.
    – markgraf
    Oct 11, 2019 at 13:16
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I'm not sure what you see when you see when you click through there, but if it is just the question, that's because the answer you flagged was deleted from there. Deleted answers remain visible if you have enough rep. The last version of that one was:

This answer was marked as spam or rude or abusive and is therefore not shown - you can see the revision history for details.

locked by Community♦ 19 hours ago

deleted as spam or offensive 19 hours ago by Community♦

Looking at the revision history, it certainly fits your description (although I do not think it would be appropriate to puzzling or anywhere else, it looks like just an intentional garbage post from an account that also should have been deleted).

Why your flag was declined I can't say, possibly if the post was deleted before it was handled.

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  • So now I have no way of removing the flag because the post was deleted? I will not be able to flag anything in the future, unless that is resolved.
    – markgraf
    Oct 11, 2019 at 9:16
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    @markgraf As far as I can see, you are not currently banned from flagging. You will receive a warning when you submit your future flags, but they should stop showing if those are not also declined.
    – Kusalananda Mod
    Oct 11, 2019 at 10:40

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