A few hours ago, I flagged an answer because it had no sources. The contents seemed plausible in part, but without sources an uninformed reader cannot quickly check for him/herself or dig deeper without a lot of googling. My flag was declined with the message:
declined - flags should only be used to make moderators aware of content that requires their intervention
However, in a comment on another meta post I was informed by a mod that unsourced answers can be flagged. The comment was:
Just as an option for you to consider, you can flag a question for not containing sources and I will put the citations required post notice on it. So you don't necessarily have to post a comment if you are wary of the usual interactions that ensue.
The last sentence of this comment is very important because when I've commented on answers lacking sources, I've sometimes had, shall we say, less than appreciative responses.
Note: I'm not saying that mods should accept any flag on an answer with no sources; some members here intelligently put bits of common knowledge together to produce solid answers, and I'm happy to upvote such answers (though such cases are a distinct minority). I am left wondering, though, why we don't do more to urge posters to improve the quality of their answers (as we seem to more consistently do with questions).
The above raises a number of issues, some of which have been commented on extensively in other meta posts, but for now I'm just looking for clarification on my main question because at the moment I'm a little confused.
Can we flag answers because they lack sources?