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6:35 AM
In another room a user asked why their question was deleted by a mod:
in Reopen? Undelete? Close? Delete?, 15 hours ago, by novice
Hi, It says a moderator has deleted my Question. Here is my Question. I think it's a fair question to ask
I have mentioned to them that there exists that there exists this room, but clearly they did not post anything here.
It some of the moderators thinks that this is something worth commenting on, you can leave them a reply somewhere. (On the other hand, if they want to here something from moderators, perhaps they could have asked here by themselves.)
In connection with the same user I was surprise by this:
But I suppose it is some kind of misunderstanding on the OPs side. I doubt very much that he would not be able to make posts after just one deleted question.
7:37 AM
oh, I've been lousy at checking in. We have an office!
hmm
for what it's worth, I might recommend anyone coming in here to ping one or any of the mods who have been in recently
8:21 AM
@mixedmath I thought that it is exactly opposite of what should have been done.
I am partly responsible for creating this room - see my post on meta. I wrote there: If I ping one of the moderators it is kind of forcing this particular person to deal with the issue; it would be better to get the issue to attention of any moderator - somebody from the moderator team who has time at the moment could deal with it.
Of course, there are situations where pings are reasonable. (E.g., I have discussed the issue with one of the mods previously and I want to continue the discussion. Another example: I want to talk specifically to the mod, who closed/deleted my question.)
9:21 AM
@MartinSleziak I don't think I would have deleted that question, but IM(ns)HO it was bound to be deleted one way or another. The question itself was poorly phrased and confused, and the answer didn't seem to address any of the specific concerns of the user (whatever those may be).
For whatever it's worth, it was re-asked on philosophy.SE:
0
Q: Pi plus Pi equal to two times Pi

noviceCan we say Pi plus Pi to be equal to 2*Pi. The rules in mathematics/ Group theory have been defined on wholly convergent numbers? Pi has an element of divergence. One must define/model this divergent element within the equal to sign. (The rules on convergent symbols, cannot apply here) Note: A...

@ArthurFischer Interesting to know.
@MartinSleziak When the system has deemed a user's recent questions to be poor(ly received) they are automatically blocked from asking new questions for a period of time. This is somewhat explained in the following MSE post:
133
Q: Rolling question rate limits are now network-wide

Tim PostWhen you think of Q&A sites, you think of a place where you come to get answers to your questions. But, where do those answers come from? What doesn't immediately stand out for many folks is that it's not our software that's giving them answers, it's other people that are taking the time to share...

As I said, if the OP thinks that this should be discussed with mods, it is up to them. I just mentioned the link to their message in other room - just in case mods missed it.
Good to know. So I take it it is a temporary ban. (Permanent post-ban after one post would seem crazy.)
Interesting to know that it was reposted on another site.
It already has some answers and a few comments saying that it is off-topic.
@MartinSleziak Almost certainly. I believe that one essentially has to try in order to be permanently q-banned now.
ok
I think that's enough time wasted with a post which does not make too much sense.
Thanks for your reply!
10:14 AM
@MartinSleziak oh, that's interesting. I was thinking only of the fact that I don't expect to check here very often unless pinged (or, I suppose, unless this place gets a lot of use)
10:32 AM
@mixedmath I understand. I suppose that if I have something relevant and I don't receive any answer, I would definitely ping somebody.
But personally I would prefer, in most situations, post the question to any mods. (Although that does not make much of a difference at the moment - Arthur Fischer seems to frequent several specialized room a lot.)
For example like here:
in Mathematics, Jan 13 at 7:20, by Martin Sleziak
If some mod will be around, they can respond to this, in case I have omitted something important on give an incorrect advice there.
I have only posted a message saying that if some of the mods happens to be there and see my message, they might add some comment. And on of the mods indeed noticed that and posted some comments.
We will see whether this room will be frequented at all. (So far there seem to be nothing here which would really require moderators involvement.)
In any case, I have starred your advice on pinging, so that it is a bit more visible. (Of course, if you think that it is not useful to have that on the starboard, as a moderator you can remove the star.)
I would like to know, what dispute is there about this question?
 
1 hour later…
11:59 AM
@NajibIdrissi: The list of reasons to lock a question only has customized entries, with varying durations for the lock. So it is possible that Pedro picked this locking reason to make it shortlived. I haven't checked with him - this is just speculation based on my experience on intervening in another un/delete skirmish. As you see, I was one of the close voters of that question back in the day, so I have in that sense picked a side.
I'm categorically opposed to posting any multiple choice question on the site. That is just so clearly an exam/contest/HW question that I cannot stomach it. The solution needs a nice bit of recursive thinking, so the question could be salvaged by editing. If only the undeleters where more active in that front. AmWhy has done a bit of that IIRC.
12:14 PM
If I read the revision history correctly, Pedro has undeleted the question and then locked it.
I don't know whether revision history would show us whether there already were undelete votes by other users at the time. (My guess is that they would be shown.)
I only see deletion by 3 users and undeletion by a mod in the revision history. So from what I (as a regular user) can see there, it does not look as a close/reopen or delete/undelete war.
Well, maybe Pedro will notice the discussion about that question and he will add some explanation.
1:01 PM
@Martin: You're right. The question was flagged requesting undeletion by a moderator. I don't think I can tell who did it, probably I don't need to either.
1:20 PM
@Jyrki I see (for the "content dispute" lock reason)
I hope this situation doesn't become the norm, for what it's worth. Delete votes are scarce enough, so if they're wasted every time a particular user has answered the question...
(And I wonder what's the point of the "reopen/undelete" thread then)
Thanks for the explanation @Jyrki. (Ii I understand correctly, it was a custom flag.)
Re: I don't think I can tell who did it. Of course, I agree with you. If some information is only visible for mods, there's probably a reason for it. (And I don't think knowing the user who flagged it would be of any use of me.)
 
4 hours later…
5:07 PM
@NajibIdrissi Hello there. The question, though poor, generated valuable answers.
5:19 PM
@Pedro After more than a month of being closed, nobody even started improving the question. Not to mention the low views. The only sensible reason I see for that is that the question is of no interest to anyone...
@NajibIdrissi That's too much of a general conclusion to arrive to. Of course I don't want to go to the extreme and become a question hoarder, but still.
(Also, 120 views is not really that bad. My last three or four questions don't even have 100 views!)
I don't think it had 120 views before I posted it here, but point taken...
My point is that it's harmful for the website to just keep around terrible questions just because a prominent user (who fights teeth and nails to keep his answers undeleted) happened to answer it, if no one is going to improve these questions.
There is way too much volume here for that to be a good solution
26
Q: Under what circumstances is it appropriate to delete a question that has received a good answer?

user61527I would like to have a discussion about the following question: When is it appropriate to delete a question which has been closed as "missing context or details," but which has generated mathematically good and upvoted answers? What considerations should be made when voting? The recent spat...

@NajibIdrissi Yes, I don't mean to defend his crusade. We're not always agreeing with him, don't worry. It's a delicate matter. I will think over it now that I'm having lunch.
Thanks.
Thanks*
(I understand it's delicate, I'd just like to make sure undeleting questions every time someone is unhappy his answer got deleted too isn't going to become the norm)
@NajibIdrissi You can edit your messages in chat, for up to 5 minutes after posting it.
5:33 PM
Oh, great, I didn't know that
Should drop more often to chat! =D
Of course, you can drop by the Mathematics chatroom which is a bit more informal than "our office."
How should one react to questions of this type:
http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1112246/proof-for-goldbachs-conjecture
I know some mod must have deleted a comment of mine (wich I'm fine with) but since these "fake proofs" occur every one in a while and I consider them spam in the format the question is right now, what am I supposed to do?
5:52 PM
@AlexR Why do you think it is spam?
@AlexR Spam flags should only be used in cases of actual unsolicited advertisements of goods/services. Not "I don't like this post!"
Downvoting and voting to close (the latter of which I am certain you did) are the appropriate courses of action.
@PedroTamaroff The post is a one-liner with a link (i.e. in bad format) to an untrusted source. I consider it a potential risk to open the link and the question without attached text is useless.
@AlexR That's not what spam is.
@ArthurFischer I did indeed (as can be seen, since the post is now closed) as I said, it was not an "I don't like this post!" flag (I'm sure you know I seldomly use the flagging option).
@PedroTamaroff Okay I'll keep that in mind for future posts akin to this. So the scope of the "spam" flag is very narrow as in only cat-on-a-keyboard or actual advertisement posts? Note that linking such sites is considered a form of advertisement (of the site) by me, since such small sites will get more traffic if SE links to them, but that's just my opinion and I will give the community guidelines precedence here.
@AlexR Just google the definition or spam or read the FAQ! =D
@AlexR Point granted, I agree dropping a link to SE increases activity, but still it is not -- by definition -- spam.
6:07 PM
@PedroTamaroff Spam is a flexible word :D The question is the users' intent behind posting the link. The specific user here seems to have done it without malicious intent, but other users might not.
@AlexR SE's definition is pretty straightforward. Around here, use it. Outside of SE use whatever definition you want.
6:35 PM
@AlexR Only advertising is spam hereabouts. Cat on the keyboard is low quality.
@DanielFischer Okay, I've checked @Arthur's comment here.
@AlexR Yep.
Thanks for your patience with me :) Have a nice day!
7:36 PM
I'm curious to know how much time you mods spend moderating on a daily basis.
@Lord_Farin Maybe something can be found in the answer to MSE and meta.MSE as seen by moderators. But no exact numbers are given there.
 
1 hour later…
9:03 PM
@Lord_Farin I'm personally spending a lot less time now than I was before the election. I still spend a lot of time around the site, but less flag handling and such. Perhaps an hour to an hour-and-a-half a day on more moderation-specific duties (spread out in dribs and drabs).
9:15 PM
@ArthurFischer Good to know, thanks.

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