Deleted answer for "commercial" response

Question

I sent this question about barefoot running to a friend at work - mostly because we've both been transitioning to "five-fingered" type running this past year. (naturally, I also wanted to promote the site)

He wrote an answer suggesting some sort of do-it-yourself kit for making your own barefoot shoes- I didn't get to see it, because he came to me, disappointed that his answer had been deleted. He said that although he linked to the kit site. it wasn't really very commercial; when it was flagged he was told something along the lines that he hadn't written enough of an explanation for why this answer was appropriate (or something like that).

Isn't this being a little harsh? A comment suggested editing, or just editing the answer seems to me a better response. Or more time to fix it? I don't know how fast this all happened; I'm just sorry that he had a poor experience. Especially since his answer, as he explained it to me (in person) seemed appropriate.

Unfortunately, I didn't figure out how I could see the question history in order to see his deleted answer.

Answer 1

The deleted answer consisted only of:

You can try invisible shoe, you can ether prepare it yourself or order a kit http://www.invisibleshoe.com/kit/

Which is more a comment, by any standard. Furthermore, Greg left him a comment:

I see that this link has instructions for making the sandal with or without the advertised kit, but this needs some explanation to avoid coming off as spam.

With which I agree, because the site doesn't 'look' reliable. This isn't the first answer on the site that linked to this particular product, which seems to have been posted by someone affiliated with the product no less. However, that answer does go into way more details and also mentions several alternatives.

While I agree it may have been harsh for your friend, you have to realize that a 1-rep user posting basically just a link is a red flag for us moderators. You coming to Meta is the correct way of dealing with the situation, because now everybody knows they don't have to flag this particular user/answer anymore.

As for how to proceed, I've undeleted his answer, but we still require him to add some more information. While yes, I could edit the answer myself, I don't have any particular experience with the product at hand and given the question states "I can't afford the five fingers shoe.", I suspect this user is not very inclined to spend money on the issue. So the answer doesn't really help address the users need, unless its really cheap to manufacture yourself and requires little skill.

If you have any other questions or comments, feel free to leave a comment or come to the chat room