Theoretical Computer Science 2014 Election

Dilworth

08:22

hello.

I also believe that the moderator Kaveh is way too aggressive in his behavior on this site. He promotes lengthy arguments, unnecessary confrontations, and overall a very unfriendly and hostile environment. However, I understand that he is going to step down soon, which is a good news for this site.

I wish to see much more friendly and polite attitude taken by future moderators, and I believe many join me in this wish. There were quite a few discussions by senior participants in this site, like Noam Nisan and Peter Shor as well as others who also disliked the aggressive tone of some of the participants. All moderators can take example of the laid back attitude taken by Suresh, for instance.

vzn

16:08

@sasho disappointing attitude. would attempt to have a dialog but youve clearly already made up your mind havent you? the unthinking/near-automatic groupthink on this site even by top-rep users disappoints me greatly.

there is a unconstructive circle the wagons tendency, some unhealthy rigidity among the current mgt & high rep users. there is no room/space for different opinions.

@Dilworth AGREED

unfortunately you have no status here with the low rep. however, respect your opinion. strangely enough even those who work hard & put in the time to earn higher rep are not respected for it even by high rep users.... bizarre at times....

if I am not mistaken all 3 other candidates disparage the rep system in one way or another even as they have higher points than I do!

sasho, as for the list of candidates, it was based on several issues.

to me, they are all first rate TCS practitioners, some are members on this site, yet they are disengaged ... why is that? I guess that is a taboo question to ask. which has to be shut down.

so, meta therefore is not a site for discussion apparently. any pov that the current moderators dont want to discuss, they can quickly delete without trace.

hey, its the ultimate cyber-repression-dream system in the hands of a dictator eh?

why are we having this exchange in chat? it should be in meta and a ethical/mature mod/ team would support that.

the current 3man so-called "team" is nowhere to be found on this chat room opened by se mgt.... guess they find no real use for real dialogue

"a great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices" —william james, psychologist

sasho, "victim", huh?!?

guess you would like to continue the prior longstanding/unstated policy of official/designated scapegoating

dilworth I INVITE/ENCOURAGE/IMPLORE YOU TO POST YOUR COMMENTS ABOVE, VERBATIM, TO A META POST, ASAP, FOR AN OPEN/CANDID GROUP DISCUSSION. LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS

@KristofferArnsfeltHansen hi

dilworth in any case thank you for your candor it is a breath of fresh air and a glimmer of "new directions" =)

the elephant in the room has finally made a noise :p

"The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." —F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up", Esquire Magazine (February 1936)

Sasho Nikolov

18:57

@vzn Why are you making a simple situation so dramatic? If you wanted to nominate David, Peter, Yuval, Lance, Dick, and Statys, you could have very well done so before nominations were closed, don't you think?

If you would like to discuss why this group of (mostly senior) people are not more active, and you think this is a topic worth discussing on meta, you can open a separate thread.

But why would you post a bunch of faux nominations past the closing date? In my opinion that's somewhere between silly and disruptive.

If you'd like my guess why senior researchers like the ones you mention are not tripping over themselves to be moderators, remember that they are usually in a plenty of leadership positions already (advisory boards, steering committees and PCs of conferences, faculty search committees within their institutions, plus likely reviewing grants for NSF and other organizations, to name just a few). They may not have time for moderating this site.

Unfortunately everyone's capacity for taking on new duties is limited. And the world of TCS is relatively small, but still a lot larger than CSTheory @ SE

In any case the point is if you want to discuss policies or community involvement or whatever on meta, you can open a thread, rather than hijack an old thread. No one is stopping you from asking your questions, just ask them in the appropriate place.

vzn

19:17

hi @sasho if kaveh had simply commented or downvoted etc instead of knee-jerk reacting and labelling it as "abusive", could have answered the objections.

the answers served multiple purposes.

first, the nominations are based on that it was not clear until the very last minute who the current nominees would be. three candidates volunteered in the last 3 hours of the window and then it closed.

next, the post can serve as an indication of an invitation to those individuals to take on a moderator role in the group even though they are not active.

it is true it was 6 separate answers, but that is simply following the convention exactly as established by kaveh, & they all appear on the same post, that does not have any effect on the meta display of my answers. [it is all listed as one modification to the list by me on the main meta page.]

so my question to your question is why do I have to go through such a hassle to justify a simple post to meta?

to me, meta should be more freewheeling and open to expression.

people can signify distaste by downvoting

as 4 people just did on my heartfelt & highly researched personal introduction/tiein to TCS

wow, shocked that that hasnt been deleted already.

-3

A: What TCS-stackexchange is for and what is *your* aim in participation?

personal view on TCS (.se) (T)CS is a wondrous, fascinating, beautiful, deep, vibrant field. came to it in preteens, heard about public key cryptography from a relative who clipped out an article from a newspaper on it. dad, a jr high school algebra teacher, brought home one of the 1st PCs, prog...

see, here we are on a chat room, discussing meta? isnt this meta madness? this "evading/avoiding the issue" was triggered by the heavyhanded, unilateral deletion by a single moderator.

do you have any response to dilworths issues just raised?

dilworth, a newcomer who should be welcomed is probably terrified to post to meta at all at this point....dunno! maybe never to be heard from again....

is it not a great list of great contributors to TCS and/or the site who deserve to be considered for a leadership role?

it was kaveh's idea to invite people. was following his idea. but oh! because THE CRANK posted something, it must be wrong/abusive AIEEEE HAHAHA

* * *

oops! that picture of the deleted lines above [which if one was in a really bad mood after years of smallminded resistance might call censorship by a bully/petty dictator] isnt searchable by search engines and the deleted items cant be picked up by search engines either! [as intended] @#%& so, gotta use a bit of creativity & the cool SE features fix that.... =)

David Eppstein, Irvine, CA

26.6k 2 80 162

Peter Shor , Cambridge, MA

14.2k 1 52 85

cc.complexity-theory ds.algorithms quantum-computing co.combinatorics reference-request it.information-theory soft-question

Yuval Filmus, Toronto, Canada

7.2k 16 48

cc.complexity-theory ds.algorithms co.combinatorics reference-request fl.formal-languages circuit-complexity graph-theory

Lance Fortnow, Atlanta, GA

3.6k 13 32

cc.complexity-theory complexity-classes big-picture oracles polynomial-hierarchy relativization np-hardness

dick lipton

401 3 4

cc.complexity-theory circuit-complexity co.combinatorics graph-colouring graph-theory natural-proofs algebraic-complexity

Sasho Nikolov

19:35

Let me just repeat myself. The question where you posted answers was meant for a specific purpose, adding more answers after the nomination closing time is unnecessary performance art on your part.

vzn

its not performance art

Sasho Nikolov

I encourage you to post a new thread on meta. I am sure it won't get closed. It might get downvoted, I don't know about that

I personally would not downvote a question about the level of involvement from senior researchers

or community involvement in general

vzn

hahaha

Sasho Nikolov

I would probably upvote if it is asked in a reasonable way

vzn

maybe it will not get closed depending on how the current mgt depends to circle the wagons

that is quite a bluff there

I will see you and raise you as usual hahaha

Sasho Nikolov

19:37

ya, sure..

vzn

@#@$& you interrupted my list of names so now its not contiguous hahaha

see, kaveh has NEVER reversed a deletion anywhere. has he?

Sasho Nikolov

well, feel free to continue with your lists, i have work to do. goodbye

vzn

or have any other moderators?

hmmmm....

yeah, agreed, there are much better things to think about.

like this =)

Sasho Nikolov

i do not know the answer to your question

vzn

what question?

Sasho Nikolov

19:39

whether a deletion has been reversed

vzn

heres a question

0

Q: "tree-like" vs "DAG-like" resolution

hi all there seems to be a deep/not-much-explored phenomenon in the way that SAT resolution proofs can define a tree and/or a DAG & its relationship to lower bounds/circuit complexity. could there be something very significant here? here is a 1999 paper by Iwama, Miyazaki that describes this phen...

reference-request graph-theory circuit-complexity big-picture resolution

lets see if it gets deleted

or downvoted etc

Sasho Nikolov

i will take a look, but proof complexity is not my forte

vzn

because of course its by the one-who-cannot-be-named aka crank

np to each his own live & let live is what I always say

what is your forte?

does moderation fit in there anywhere? wink =)

some credit for showing up in chat! kaveh visited earlier today then split, oh well

Sasho Nikolov

btw this question is very vague, i am not sure what's asked

vzn

ok fine, fair enough, maybe vote to close it on those criteria. your 1st test of moderation, wink

Sasho Nikolov

19:42

ok forte was a pretentious word

vzn

sometimes I like pretension words wink =)

thats why I reused it =)

Sasho Nikolov

haha

vzn

!!!

Sasho Nikolov

so ok, here is the thing, vague questions that are no offtopic should not be closed imo

vzn

agreed!

Sasho Nikolov

19:43

they could be downvoted on

vzn

but what is a vague question, we could spend hours debating that on meta. actions are what matter right.

Sasho Nikolov

i am conservative with downvoting, but i would encourage you to clarify what you are looking for

because the result you cite seems to settle the question for tree-like vs dag resolution

what's open?

vzn

it is clear enough to me but its maybe a right brained question [in a left brained club]

Sasho Nikolov

if you ask for circuits vs formulas, we've discussed this in a previous question you had

vzn

trees and dags will be used forever into the future of complexity theory.

its trying to look at a research program, not necessarily a single specific result

lipton has a great post on research programs on his blog.

it is labeled big-picture a controversial tag in other places eg cs.se.

Sasho Nikolov

19:45

bold statement. maybe you are right, but 'give me CC papers that mention the keywords "dag" and "tree"' is not a specific enough question i think

vzn

the moderators hate that tag there and burned it.

am looking for papers that look at it in terms of resolution proofs. think thats in there

tieing circuit theory into resolution proofs/SAT lower bounds etc.

which reminds me of

Stasys, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

2.1k 9 22

cc.complexity-theory circuit-complexity lower-bounds graph-theory monotone dynamic-programming formulas

will take you up on your suggest to post to meta, lets see what happens

Sasho Nikolov

i know you are after some research program, you've hinted and stated that many times. but this is a q&a site. if your question is not well defined, you can't expect good answers, and you can't expect upvotes. you can still pursue your program and ask questions when you have something specific to ask.

tie in circuits into resolution how?

vzn

it is a question that is the tip of an iceberg of a research program.

Sasho Nikolov

ok anyways, i am sorry, i really should go

vzn

yeah life is short

nice chatting

Sasho Nikolov

19:48

good luck, and if you write a meta question, please try to sound less..alarmist...

vzn

thx for feedback

Sasho Nikolov

good talking, goodbye

vzn

good advice

but the original posts were not alarmist

the drama in chat is for just for fun haha =)

BOOOO!!!

vzn

20:07

@SashoNikolov ok lets see what happens

0

Q: to some of the elite members of the site

dont post a lot here, because sometimes my questions here which I put significant time into writing get deleted (seemingly unilaterally), from almost "day1". the nomination window ended with 3 candidates volunteering within the last minute, within the last three hours, so it wasnt clear who woul...

discussion

vzn

21:55

hi @brant

vzn

22:50

@sasho you ask good questions above re drawing in senior researchers. as a model consider the following, an interesting new take on social networks

(just ran across this last nite)

Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics John Cannarella, Joshua A. Spechler

to me, tcs.se is in many ways a social network for TCS.

it has more advanced features for social networking than even some other premiere sites like facebook, google, & blogging sites.

ps am wondering, did you downvote my introduction on meta? -4, ouch that hurts =(

you say you would considering upvoting me on meta, will you plz upvote my intro answer?

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Theoretical Computer Science 2014 Ele…