Not really a "code break", but Shor's break of almost all classical cryptography using quantum algorithms comes to mind as a major break in the history of cryptography.
Transcript of comments that could not be moved as the system does not allow moving comments to an existing chat when older comments were already moved to chat (which reacted a chatroom)
> @e-sushi I think a question of this kind could be a good big-list question. All StackExchange websites have big-list questions which often get the highest number of upvotes as well, i.e. are popular among users. Can you point me to a post on a different SE website proving that a consensus among a majority of users is that all such big-list questions should be closed by moderators without further discussion? (And you should be careful when using your moderator powers to enforce your own opinion on these matters - your opinion is not necessarily the best.) – TMM 4 hours ago
> @TMM First up, please note that – assuming enough reputation – you can always drop a vote on the "reopen" button. Anyway, to keep things short I’ll reopen this Q for the benefit of the doubt. Yet if users close-vote this as **too broad** again, don’t knock on my door. Now, re your `… Can you point me to a post on a different SE website…` the answer is a clear "no, as that would not make sense due to the fact that [***all SE sites work by using their own rules***](http://meta.crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/1/do-we-want-literature-recommendations-and-similar-list-subjective-questions)…
> @e-sushi I think "innocent until proven guilty" should apply here instead of "I decide he is guilty and with enough proof he can be found innocent". If it is a clear-cut case I wouldn't mind, but big list questions are usually not so clear. And I understand each site is different, but these kinds of "big list" questions appear all throughout the network. Math.SE and MathOverflow have many of these, where usually there is discussion about closure or not, but there is usually no clear consensus to close. And I wouldn't mind if you move all this off-topic stuff to chat now. – TMM 24 mins ago
@TMM I bet that – given enough time – we’ll notice to agree on many things. I guess you happened to stumble upon one of the not-so-common situations… where I may have cleaned up things a bit too rigurously. Not that moving things to chat "destroyed" anything really, and you surely have your points – most to which I agree.
This discussion feels off-topic for discussing it in the "Discussion on question ..." but as nobody reads chat anyways, I guess that's not a big issue.
Anyway there are two things which I disagree with with you it seems, which is (1) how quickly one should move comments to chat, and (2) if answers-posted-as-comments should be moved to chat at all. I think for (1) it should be "only if really necessary" and for (2) it should in general be "no". Exceptions can be made of course, but in my opinion moderators should only interfere when it's really necessary.
I bet that – given enough time – we’ll notice to agree on many things. I guess you happened to stumble upon one of the not-so-common situations… where I may have cleaned up things a bit too rigurously. Not that moving things to chat "destroyed" anything really, and you surely have your points – most to which I agree. I guess "bad timing" on both sides raised some critical questions – which isn’t a bad thing at all. I’m always open to be corrected or to be pointed to "glitches" that need to be corrected. (I’m known to correct things rather quickly in such cases.) After all, I’m merely human …
All in all – I tend to not "clean up comments" unless they (a) get flagged, or (b) I happen to stumble upon old stuff that practically is superfluous – like "Thank You" comments at el.
Personally I think that converting this to chat was the right thing to do. Having such a long list as comments is certainly detrimental to the Q/A. Maybe in this case it would have made sense to create a Q with a community wiki A. But if it is currently off topic then such a thing should - if practical - be discussed on meta first.
Well I think even "thank you" comments are not necessarily bad - it can show how two users interacted, and gives additional information besides the "theoretical" content. If the OP comments "thank you" on an answer, it shows to everone that he (likely) got the answer he was looking for.
Recently I've seen a few questions/answers where a moderator decided to move all comments to the chat room and delete them from the question/answer in question, leaving only a link to the chat room and the deleted comments. To quote e-sushi on one occasion:
As our help center as well as the c...
With detrimental I mean people not reading all the comments or leaving the question altogether and nobody writing an answer (because everybody already answered in the comments).
This is something that has been hovering my mind for a few weeks now and because I keep seeing questions going out unanswered (because the valid answers were posted as comments), I decided to ask about this.
In relation to comments, the tour states:
Use comments to ask for more information ...
I often see posts in which no Answer has been offered as such, but the user's problem was solved using advice which appears in the comment section (or in extreme cases in the extended discussion in chat) of the post.
This is mildly upsetting, because there's nothing at the scrolling-list level...
Erm, related to the Question that all started this: anyone have an idea how we can pull this more on-topic and make it less broad, without risking to change the question in a way that we lose @Raza ’s initial intend?
What are the major code breaks in the history of cryptography? Which code breaks changed the face of a battle or another major event? Which one had nationwide consequences?
The break of the German Enigma based codes can serve as a well known example of such a code break.
@TMM I’ld rather not drop my opinion anymore… I said "too broad" in the past and (potentially deserved) got a slap on my fingers for that. OK, guess it’s up for @Raza to get back at this and maybe clarify what exacty he is looking for ("unclear what you’re asking"?). Not sure if my comment with research-efforts clarification request will be understood as intended…
And sure, it's all just discussions about content/policies. I tend to be somewhat aggressive towards "authorities" sometimes, but it's not directed at you personally ;)
Recently I've seen a few questions/answers where a moderator decided to move all comments to the chat room and delete them from the question/answer in question, leaving only a link to the chat room and the deleted comments. To quote e-sushi on one occasion:
As our help center as well as the c...
This is something that has been hovering my mind for a few weeks now and because I keep seeing questions going out unanswered (because the valid answers were posted as comments), I decided to ask about this.
In relation to comments, the tour states:
Use comments to ask for more information ...
Discussion on question by Raza: Crypt…
Discussion on question by Raza: Crypt…