CURED

@quid @DanielFischer: Is this PSQ encouraged by this site? It was reopened despite having a total lack of context/effort. And I even noticed a surge of upvotes after I mentioned it in this chat-room. In my opinion such bad examples should be deleted, but at the very least it should be locked as of mere historical value and not a good indicator of what the site encourages. Otherwise we're being inconsistent.

duplicates Is the duplicate closure of 2563509: Proof of $\sum_{k=1}^n \binom{n}{k} \binom{n}{n+1-k} = \binom{2n}{n+1}$ via Induction correct? The current duplicate target is 2563509: Proof of $\sum_{k=1}^n \binom{n}{k} \binom{n}{n+1-k} = \binom{2n}{n+1}$ via Induction. This post does not ask for a proof specifically using induction.

Perhaps if there is a reasonable duplicate target, it could be this one: Inductive proof for $\binom{2n}{n}=\sum\limits_{k=0}^n\binom{n}{k}^2$ If you look at robjohn's answer, it is done by induction and gives a proof for both $\sum\binom nk^2$ and $\sum\binom nk \binom n{k-1}$.

> I fixed the answer that you had accepted, since it had not been fixed despite my comments months ago and was thoroughly misleading to every reader. This incident (and many other similar incidents such as here) shows that you cannot assume answers you receive on Math SE are correct or meaningful.

@amWhy @LeakyNun: I got sick and tired of this post having its blatant errors not fixed despite my comments, so I edited it. If you still see an error in it, please let me know.

You die internally a little bit, downvote/vtc a few, and, um, yeah.

@SimplyBeautifulArt I have added one more comment - since I did not want to give impression that the main business of this room is to come here and choosing which post to delete. (Especially since the OP explicitly asks whether this is ethical, I thought that it is useful to be careful with the formulation.)

@user21820 It's a rejected migration. The system will automatically delete it, but I'm not sure how often that script runs.

@amWhy I hope so too. Maybe taking a break from Math SE at least one day a week might help? I think I over-participate as well.

@user21820 Thanks, @user21820. But I really am getting burned out on this site. Hopefully, that'll resolve itself.

@Why I made the move only after Martin suggested it, with the clear intention of tidying up and the assumption that you would be notified (in your inbox). You are free to tell us that you don't like it, but whether it is inappropriate is not for you to determine either. Anyway I don't wish to argue with you; I feel that you tend to misunderstand a lot of what I say or do. I'm sorry that it's this way; I never intend to annoy you.

@SimplyBeautifulArt Just tried weeding out room owners. I think having like 14 room owners was a bit over the top!!

I knew that I had seen that before, but it took me a while to find it.

PSQ open for deletion: math.stackexchange.com/q/2537089/9003

Thanks! (And also thanks to Daniel Fischer for merging.)

This mathematically silly answer is worth attempting to get rid off...

@Did @amWhy @SimplyBeautifulArt: PSQ here.

@amWhy PSQ from the same user.

@user21820 @amWhy @SimplyBeautifulArt @Did math.stackexchange.com/questions/2491305/… unclear what they're asking

@Did Well there is a whole range of problems, aren't there? Of course, the problem of experienced users answering lousy questions is far worse than drive-by upvoters, because they ought to know better. However, the drive-by voters cause the voting system to fail to identify good questions and answers, so it is also a problem even if a lesser one.

This question has nothing to do with mathematics, and anyone who even takes the effort to learn basic programming would not be asking it.

Every single post from this user mathb is a bare-boned PSQ, and yet, it seems each one of them has been upvoted at least once. E.g., this most recent question is great compared to their others

@GabrielRomon: So as you can see, in both cases this approach is not only fully in line with the goal of preserving question quality on Math SE, but also the moderators are more than happy to help to move quality answers to a good substitute for a bad question. Furthermore, Martin will be able to tell you that this approach is rather well received (even though Martin says that sometimes there will still be inexplicable downvotes on the new good question).

@GabrielRomon Just because people spend effort on poor questions does not make the questions any less poor. They can and should post their answers on good questions. If a poor question gets deleted and someone thinks their answer is applicable to a much wider audience than the original (lousy) one, they can just post their own (often generalized) question and answer independently and let the original be deleted.

@MartinR No longer. And one was enough, yay gold badge.

@Did @amWhy @ZacharySelk: This answer is wrong (as stated in my comments) and the author has twice refused to correct it. Like how many minutes would it take to just remove unjustified claims?

Yummy, @user21820 and @DanielFischer .. Thinking about a fruit salad for lunch! Strawberries, Mango, raspberries, apples, pears, etc. Now, since we're close to becoming "fruit-cases", I'm with Daniel on leaving fruit alone (except maybe for my lunch!)

The name is "von Mangoldt".

@Did @amWhy @GabrielRomon: I do not understand why this answer has got so many upvotes when it is so wrong. Came across it again when trying to find some post (which I still can't find)...

I'll also note that your method of undeleting and locking to preserve a good answer seems to be sub-optimal. As Martin and I have discussed extensively before, there is another option available (which Martin has in fact used a number of times): Write a new question (a different one) and move the good answer there, leaving the old lousy question closed. Jam can do this, or you (as a moderator) can do it if you love Jam's answer.

> On Math SE we use base 10, so when describing other number systems we describe them using base 10. Notice that I even said "base 10" where the "10" is in base "10". This is circular if we don't even know that "10" means "ten", but we do because we are as usual using base 10! If you want to go completely independent of base, you can. You just need to understand "1" and "+", and write "1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1" to mean "ten". You're lazy to write that? Then consider using positional number systems!

@user21820 Get a hold of this: On the question math.stackexchange.com/questions/2500252/…, I had commented to Jack, the moderator, about what I saw as an answer to a PSQ. Just checked back now, my comment was deleted. So, I left a follow up question, likely also to be deleted.

Subjectively, I don't see how it answers anything, but even objectively, it's impossible that it "Looks OK" to anyone who has even a bit of grasp of the English language. Quite honestly, I'm shocked.

same thing with this guy

this user keeps asking questions without providing any context (PSQ), however none of his questions ever got closed

It's not like the asker himself is much better, though.

@user21820 Probably some kind of delusion at work here. Need the feeling that they are a part of the club and get as close as they can to this feeling by posting these... things.

@user21820 archive-hapi.uq.edu.au/william-balthes This might be from a while ago since the alleged advisor moved since. Wild guess: PhD never completed, need for an ear.

@user21820 Yes. Many of these posts are excruciatingly long, despite having nearly zero mathematical content. Somewhile ago, WB seemed to agree in a comment responding to me, that their posts had no place on mse and would be better suited to a personal blog. Apparently, they changed their mind since...

@amWhy Indeed I have come across this user. If I recall correctly, it's another of those who have no qualms posting about things they don't fully understand.

@MichaelHardy The program exists for a reason. And I'll say, it accomplishes that reason fairly well for a program. You think that it's a horrible example of MathJax, but does it display as intended? (Personally, I will agree that I would never write MathJax like that, but why complain about a problem that isn't a problem? haqnatural is no new user, and gets by fairly well.)

@MichaelHardy No, I do not think all of your edits are unhelpful. But all of your edits on that post thread I consider unhelpful. Surely I will agree with most your edits, but not here and not today.

@SimplyBeautifulArt hahahaha... They take the audit questions from the pool of answers! The bad, the good, and the ugly.

@MichaelHardy IMHO, such details in LaTeX will bother me from time to time. But unless the edit comes with something substantial or alters the readability (e.g. sin → \sin), don't make such edits yourself. You can leave comments explaining such minor things instead, to avoid causing edits which may be unnecessary and unseen. Editing for them may not be seen as helpful, and comments explaining are probably more valuable to those who do not know the ins and outs of MathJax.

See this revision.

@MartinSleziak Yup I'm not asking for upvotes without reading. I'm just very surprised that people seem to think the consensus is something counter to what I can find on Meta and even the founder's blog.

@SmokeDetector Flagged for moderator's attention with the explanation: "OP defaces their questions, at least two posts with answers and two with comments but no answers. Four defacements were reverted by other users, but a reminder that this is not how the site works, might be needed. (Oh, and yes, if users were not routinely answering questions with zero context, such episodes would stop to happen.)"

@GabrielRomon Yeah I know. But my aim is not to chastise the culprit (and not even to nullify the -2 points, gee -2 points, that is, 0.001%...) but to try to raise the awareness of the community about revenge downvotes which, at present, seem to me to be considered as a viable option (or, at least, not a revolting one) by an awfully large proportion of said community.