[Reelin]

I thought enough (5 or so?) downvotes resulted in an automatic [flagged][dead]? Did I misunderstand?

[dang]

That's not how it works. Rather, there's a tug of war between upvotes and flags. If the flags get the upper hand, [flagged] appears, and if they dominate, then the post also gets killed. In the latter case users with 'showdead' turned on in their profile will see [flagged][dead].