MathOverflow

8:03 AM

2

I think that adding a list of past chatrooms which are now frozen but have been active at least for some time might be a useful addition to this question. If somebody considers creating a new chat room, looking at an older room with similar topic might help to see how much interest was in discuss...

> Homotopy Theory chatroom was rather active for a long time, but eventually it was frozen after the activity decreased. As mentioned by Jonathan Beardsley, people who used to be active there moved to a Discord server.

> Some messages in the room and the room topic contain link to nodorek.net.

in Homotopy Theory, Aug 23, 2021 at 15:35, by Aaron Mazel-Gee

@AT0 Welcome! Just so you and others know, this room is mostly inactive these days; the conversation has migrated to a discord server, which can be accessed here: nodorek.net . I'd suggest that if you have further or follow-up questions you ask them there.

in Homotopy Theory, Sep 19 at 21:39, by Jonathan Beardsley

@MartinSleziak Thanks for your continued service Martin. It seems that the Algebraic Topology Discord server has basically completely taken over.

in Homotopy Theory, Apr 23, 2021 at 22:24, by Jonathan Beardsley

room topic changed to Homotopy Theory: A room for anyone interested in homotopy theory, or any nearby fields (e.g. category theory, algebraic geometry). To activate chatjax in this room go to http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/1088/should-chat-have-tex-support/3297#3297. See also the related discord server here: nodorek.net [homotopy-theory]

@AndreaMarino From the above messages is seems that if you use discord, you could try to go here: nodorek.net

Strictly speaking, the chatroom is still there, but it was frozen.

Homotopy Theory

A room for anyone interested in homotopy theory, or any nearby...

in Homotopy Theory, Oct 22 at 0:00, by Feeds

This room has been automatically frozen for inactivity

So if you think that it might be useful to have the chatroom still here, you might ask moderators to unfreeze the room.

See the corresponding tag-info or the post on Meta Stack Exchange: How do I unfreeze a frozen chat room?

Martin Sleziak

9:07 AM

@DenisNardin I will ping you - just in case you have some additional advice for Andrea Marino.

yesterday, by Andrea Marino

Hi everyone! Where has the homotopy chat migrated?

Martin Sleziak

11:14 AM

in Charcoal HQ, 3 mins ago, by SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in title (98): Packer and Mover in Bangalore‭ by hardev321‭ on mathoverflow.net

this is a trademark, hence is spam - please flag accordingly for quick deletion — YCor 1 min ago

@YCor Please don't edit spam; just flag it to have it deleted from the site ASAP. — tripleee 1 min ago

@tripleee I did so (before your comment). I only edited tags. — YCor 33 secs ago

The usual reminder: What should I do when I see a spam post on MO? — Martin Sleziak 38 secs ago

15

Q: What should I do when I see a spam post on MO?

What is the correct way to handle spam on MathOverflow? Can regular users do something when they see a spam post?

@tripleee I checked the link by Martin. The main reason not to edit spam is to avoid hiding what makes it a spam. I was aware of this and left body untouched. In practice I believe tag-removed tends to accelerate treatment of low-quality or spam posts. — YCor 53 secs ago

@YCor Maybe this would deserve a separate discussion on meta. For example, I recall that the tag spam was created several times on the main site: data.stackexchange.com/mathoverflow/query/883845/… (Personally I do not find this as an optimal thing to do.)

I guess whether or not a post is edited should not make a big difference in this instance - since the post title should be enough for anybody to spot that it is very likely a spam post.

Of course, one thing your edit does that now your name is attached to the post in any list sorted by recent activity.

Before that, a new 1-rep user was displayed there. So it was easier to spot is as a post that might potentially be problematic. (Of course, it's a bit different on MO - since reputation is hidden here by default.)

13

A: Viewing reputation and badges is now opt-in and compatible with the new front page

Maybe it might be useful to collect examples of some situations where it is actually useful to see the users reputation. (In the other words, some cases in which MO users might want to switch the displaying of reputation and badges back on.) This post is a community wiki - so that anybody can con...

However, if you look at the comments, it seems that Asaf Karagila strongly disagreed with the points I made there about spammers as 1-rep users.

In general, spam flags are a much more expedient mechanism for removing content. Editing posts push them back to the start page, which creates noise when it's not a post you actually want people to visit. (Also, the amount of pending questions with tag-removed from several years back seem to indicate that it's not very effective.) But I'm not a regular on this site, just a spam vigilante. — tripleee 56 secs ago

Martin Sleziak

11:41 AM

in Charcoal HQ, 5 mins ago, by Martin Sleziak

In any case, the post with that comment thread is gone. The comments are saved in the MO chatroom - in case somebody would like to continue this discussion.

YCor

12:54 PM

@MartinSleziak thanks for moving the discussion here. I hadn't noticed this very detail you mention (that the attached name is mine). However the tag tag-removed becomes very visible too and it's even more focussed information than the new-user name.

@MartinSleziak BTW (unrelated): in a first reading I noticed the post is totally unrelated to math, but wasn't sure it was spam (I checked the words displayed to check it was indeed an Indian company).

Martin Sleziak

Well, probably people have different definition of spam.

@YCor Considering the fact that people commonly leave the tag-removed tag on posts, I am not really sure to which extent this tag is noticeable.

Do you remember, who is the user that created the tag spam (on the main site) several times in the past?

I see - it was GH from MO.

Dec 2, 2019 at 13:50, by Martin Sleziak

@MartinSleziak: This is a comment unrelated to your answer. The tag "spam" is useful so that people can see it is spam without reading the post. I flagged that question for spam, actually. Please respond that you read this, and then I will delete this comment. — GH from MO 59 secs ago

Dec 2, 2019 at 13:51, by Martin Sleziak

@GHfromMO I've seen your comment. We can discuss this further in chat if needed. — Martin Sleziak 17 secs ago

Dec 2, 2019 at 13:55, by Martin Sleziak

The only discussion of separate tag for spam that I found is here: Tagging spam / offensive questions.

I will certainly admit that sometimes I do miss that there are posts tagged tag-removed which could be tidied up. For example, I did not notice that it could have been removed when this post was bumped:

19

Q: Generalizations of "standard" calculus

We have the usual analogy between infinitesimal calculus (integrals and derivatives) and finite calculus (sums and forward differences), and also the generalization of infinitesimal calculus to fractional calculus (which allows for real and even complex powers of the differential operator). Have ...

tag-removed big-picture soft-question fa.functional-analysis

The same post was mentioned in MO editors' lounge, too: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/10243/2022/11/1

In general, it seems that on MO there are fewer users willing to help with site maintenance - such as removing spam. (Or even willing to learn how to remove spam.)

Mar 25 at 6:57, by Martin Sleziak

I got median 29 minutes on main and 52 minutes on meta.

Mar 25 at 6:59, by Martin Sleziak

On Mathematics, median is 10 minutes.

Of course, I have no doubt that even if MO became a site where half of the posts were spam, it would still be a useful resource.

YCor

1:18 PM

@MartinSleziak If I see any recent post with tag-removed, I deduce that quite likely I should have to make some action and will then open it (normally, so as to retag / to vote closure / to vote deletion / to flag as spam).

Martin Sleziak

TBH I did not know that there are some MO users who actually consider tag-removed as the "tag to user for spam posts". Looking at the tag-info this seems like a strech to me.

In any case, perhaps we can leave this for discussion on meta - if/when somebody decides to open it.

Unfortunately, I have some stuff I'll need to do IRL. (I have timed this poorly, sorry for that.)

Martin Sleziak

5:15 PM

This should be taken with a grain of salt, but if I did not made some mistake: Most frequent tags on spam questions

Spam questions tagged tag-removed and spam.

On Mathematics, the same query returns no questions with tag-removed and three questions with spam.

And this is the query showing most frequent "spam tags" on that site: data.stackexchange.com/math/query/1669123/…

Homotopy Theory

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