Reviewing First Post Answer: Feedback Channels

Question

I just reviewed a First Post that was classified as an answer. It had poor spelling, grammar, a lot of ranting and so on. If that would have been all to it I were easily persuaded to apply a no paseran policy to this. However, it was a first post, it showed much frustration and as far as I could tell it possibly had at least some grain of value in it, albeit just: "'no werky' here too" (to adopt the terminology I read here).

My problem now is that I got myself confused on how to proceed. Editing seemed out of the question, I didn't know what would happen if I just commented on that etc. What I wanted was to tell the poster what was wrong with it so that he may learn and revise that question, or delete it on his own.

I ended up flagging it as "unsalvageable" since as an answer, I think it just was. But that user in distress is now also unsalvageable?

Isn't there a better way to give the necessary feedback? (And btw a Reviewer's Manual?)

Answer 1

Some "answers" aren't salvageable, such as those which basically say "tried everything, still doesn't work, the software s*cks" or something along these lines. It's always ok to leave a comment in such cases, I tend to use something like

You've posted this as an answer, which is only for things that directly answer the question asked. If you have a different question, feel free to ask it using the Ask Question button at the top right. Include a link to this question if it helps provide context.

and, if you have enough reputation, recommend deletion.

PS: Also see Reviewing 'low quality posts' - when to recommend deletion of answer, and what I wrote there :-)

PPS: There is What would be a guide to review first-post?, and probably more stuff on meta.stackexchange.com as well