@gmvh Actually, spam post can be removed just by regular users, without any involvement of mods. (If there is enough spam flags, the post is deleted.)

On MathOverflow Meta: What should I do when I see a spam post on MO? On Meta Stack Exchange: What are the “spam” and “rude or abusive” (offensive) flags, and how do they work?

> Upon receiving six red flags, the post will be locked and deleted, and the author will lose 100 reputation.

I cannot link you to an example - since you do not have 10k+ reputation. But I'll at least add a picture showing what the post deleted by spam flags (or rude/abusive flags) look like:

On Mathematics, spam is removed rather quickly. It takes a bit longer on MO - there are less users who can flag and probably less users on MO know what to do with spam posts.

If you want to check out some spam posts which were posted on the MO you can check out Charcoal or stats from metasmoke.

Charcoal is a chat room where you can see reports by SmokeDetector: chat.stackexchange.com/search?room=11540&q=mathoverflow.net

Metasmoke: search, dashboard, graphs.

Some statistics about mod-actions (for example, number of flags handled) can be found in the posts 2020: a year in moderation and 2019: a year in moderation.

@MartinSleziak I’m embarrassed to admit that I had no idea about those spam mechanisms before reading your comments; thank you for pointing them out. (i’ll definitely be flagging from now on, regardless of who the moderators are moving forwards)

@gmvh to add to what @MartinSleziak said, in my time as a moderator on two SE sites I handled several thousand flags, the number of deletions of actual spam posts among those actions is negligible. What is a very common task though is deleting obsolete comments (though that is, unfortunately I dare say, much less common on MO, at least it was when I was around, culture might have changed but I doubt it, which is in a way fine if those that still use the site like it).

@WillSawin that was the case some years ago, yes.

At least there was a vocal group that argued in favor of maintaining the record.

I suppose one could shift the distinction to what "obsolete" means.

I think it's definitely still the case that MO is more conversational than the intended Stack Exchange model

Yes that's my vague impression, too. In that sense I'm somewhat astonished by your question.

just because your statement admits multiple interpretations and I don't remember that well what thinks were like on MO a long time ago

(nor do I know much about the MSE culture and how it compares to MO)

I see. I initially mistook your comment as expressing disagreement.

Compared to other SE sites math.se is still permissive.

But I think in theory comment moderation is more rigid, in practice due to volume a lot of things still fall through the cracks.

Maybe a more clear and concise way to put what I meant to say is this:

In my experience on two other sites, removing spam per se is a negligible task for a moderator. However, removing obsolete or tangentially relevant comments is a big task. It may be somewhat less relevant on MO than on those sites, as MO is more open to leaving such comments around (in my experience, which had been expansive but ended several years ago).

According to the tables Martin linked, comment deletions were the second-most-common moderator action on MO in 2020, with a total 938 deleted per year, where on MSE they were the most common action, with 16,766 deleted

so indeed it seems like comment deletions are much less common here, even compared to other actions

in fact according to math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/33035/… the second-most-common action on MSE is "comment flags handled" which presumably has some overlap. The largest non-comment action is question flags handled at 3473, which comment deletions are 4.83 times more common than

On MO, comment deletions are only .96 times as common as question flags handled

at least among tasks visible on the "year in review" posts, deleting comments on MO is just one common task among many for mods, vs. by far the most common on MSE.

@quid, I'd like to see MO users delete their own obsolete comments more often, so that relevant comments can be seen more easily. E.g. after three comments pointing out small errors, and three comments noting their corrections, any further substantive comments are buried and not readily visible -- is there a good way to encourage users to delete the obsolete part of the discussion?

@MattF. you can always ask them via a comment (but be sure to remove it later on).

@reuns I do wish we had a better picture of exactly what moderation entails. But the idea of the math.se mods handling MO is a nonstarter for several reasons. First, there's no indication that the MO mods need additional help; they are doing just fine. My impression is that the main reason we're even having an election is just because it's been awhile since we last did so and there's inherent value in rotating these duties a bit.

Second, MO and math.se are distinct communities, with distinct histories, norms, goals, content, people, relationships,.... It would make basically just as little sense to have the same moderation team for the two sites as it would for any two randomly-chosen sites. Third, MO is unique among SE sites in being an independent entity not owned by SE. So it would make even less sense to "merge" it in any way with another SE site.

@quid --- hope you don't mind me saying that we miss you at MO... might you return??

@CarloBeenakker I don't mind it at all, thanks, it's a kind thing to say. I have no plans to return. While I have a lot of good memories, it's a thing of the past for me.

@quid Most recently, I for one definitely appreciated your role in helping moderate the ICM diversity discussion last fall

So even if you don't plan to come back to the main site, you've still been contributing to the community here and I appreciate that.

@TimCampion thank you for the feedback, I'm glad I could be useful.

@TimCampion I agree with that. I think @Asaf who is very active in both does too. He wrote about it in his election related posts.

Thanks, I read your interesting clues. On MSE it is easier to get an idea of what moderation accounts for, because we are often seeing practical cases needing moderation, in contrary to MO.

The comment feed is often cleared by a moderator with the "moved to chat" message.