tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Can someone unlock my question?)

DavidRoberts comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20577)

2012-11-25T15:30:58-08:00

Let's not get into this sort of discussion... :-)

Will Jagy comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20567)

2012-11-22T22:06:08-08:00

David, in the Dick Francis novels it is usually spelled Erm.

DavidRoberts comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20566)

2012-11-22T17:06:11-08:00

Erg... didn't pay enough attention

quid comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20565)

2012-11-22T15:24:14-08:00

@David Roberts: how can you, after all this discussion, forget that there was a bounty? ;)

DavidRoberts comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20564)

2012-11-22T14:47:35-08:00

Whoops.... and it looks like Kerry has lost the rep as well (only at 491, not 740+)

Scott Carnahan comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20563)

2012-11-22T00:45:21-08:00

Okay, the merge seems to have worked, and Agol's answer is now unaccepted.

Edit: I now see that the 74 upvotes that your question accrued have vanished.

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20562)

2012-11-21T22:13:20-08:00

I did as you asked.

Scott Carnahan comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20561)

2012-11-21T07:58:08-08:00

Okay, the experiment yielded outcome 2. I suggest Kerry create a new question that is a verbatim copy of the current one (perhaps with a note to the effect that a merge will take place). Then a moderator will do a merge (probably me in 8 hours or so after I wake up, but perhaps someone else sooner). The meta thread that quid linked suggests the answer should become unaccepted after merging.

quid comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20560)

2012-11-21T07:38:41-08:00

@Asaf Kargilia: yes, if the bounty period ends, and no answer was actively accepted by questioner, the answer with the highest score (if this score is at least 2) is automatically accepted and provided half of the bounty points. If such an answer does not exist the bounty expires just so (and it seems according to FAQs one can then never accept an answer). In case of equal-scoring answers it seems half the points are split among them and one of the answers accepted, at least I assume but would not know which, also not how rounding is done.

But in any case at the end of a bounty if an answer with reasonable score exists there will be an automatic accept and awarding of part of the bounty points.

As indicated this is also in the FAQs http://mathoverflow.net/faq#bounty , though I believe a detail is not correct there, in that it says the answer needs to be given after the bounty was placed, but I know for a fact this is not so as I once got an automatic accept on an answer that was given before the bounty was placed. But I can confirm that a score of 1 is insufficient for an auto-accept because once I did not get an accept on such an answer.

Anyway, on SE1 there are/can be automatic accepts if there is a bounty.

Asaf Karagila comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20559)

2012-11-21T07:19:47-08:00

Automatic accept due to bounty? That sounds strange. Is that how it works in SE 1.x platforms?

quid comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20558)

2012-11-21T05:59:38-08:00

@Asaf Karagila: This is an automatically accepted answer due to a bounty; this is different from a normal situation but independtly of un/registered, rep or anything. (This might also be different on SE2.0 but here the situation of Kerry is completely unsurprising, technical-wise that is, design-wise it is perhaps a bit surprising.)

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20557)

2012-11-21T04:53:00-08:00

I see. I shall update in the problem context. Thanks for the suggestion. I did register with some openID using my department email, but still could not see any check marks.

Asaf Karagila comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20556)

2012-11-21T04:47:35-08:00

My [limited] experience with unregistered accounts is that there should be no problem switching accepted answers (or removing them altogether).

Kerry, the user profile shows activity so I don't think that there is a split account, but there might still be (if you are using different computers). Please check your user profile and see whether or not the question appears under your user (the one where you can't see check marks).

quid comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20555)

2012-11-21T04:23:47-08:00

Essentially the same problem was discussed here Merging questions (something which is rarely done but possible) and reasking where discussed as options.

(Personal note: Kerry, if I were you, I would just edit the question mentioning prominently that you would be still interested in a complete answer; I do not believe you loose much visibilty by there being an accepted answer. In any case your question would not be in the unanswered category, having upvoted answers, and since it is so highly voted I think you keep quite a bit of visibility anyway. The bump via this edit, would I think give you in the end more visibility then if there just were no accepted answer. That you cannot delete or undelete answers is not surprising; only moderators can. It is also normal that you cannot delete your questions; at this stage (independent of the accept) again only moderators could.)

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20554)

2012-11-21T04:05:37-08:00

I see things are getting complicated. I went to the page tried to check the other answer, but did not see any checkmarks I can click on. Neither do I know how to undelete Agol's answer.

I guess if that is the best we can do then I will just leave as what it is. I did not know bounty has such an effect.

Scott Carnahan comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20553)

2012-11-21T00:29:31-08:00

Okay, I have initiated an experiment. I have temporarily deleted Agol's answer, and I would like Kerry to try to accept a different answer by clicking the attached check mark. Agol's answer will be undeleted when at least one of the following conditions holds:

Kerry succeeds in accepting a different answer, and I notice.
Kerry fails to accept a different answer, and posts about it here, and I notice.
24 (or maybe 48) hours pass.
Some other moderator decides my experiment is silly.

If another answer is accepted, I would be interested to see what happens after Agol's answer is undeleted. I suppose in an ideal world, bounty assignment would be completely separated from the answer-accepting process.

Asaf Karagila comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20552)

2012-11-20T22:55:48-08:00

Open your profile and see whether or not the question actually shows in there. Your account may have split, as unregistered accounts often do.

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20551)

2012-11-20T19:01:41-08:00

As an unregistered user I do not have enough privileges to delete their posts. But thanks for the suggestions.

Scott Carnahan comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20548)

2012-11-20T16:39:45-08:00

I tried deleting then undeleting Agol's answer, but that doesn't remove the check mark (because of the bounty, I imagine). It might be possible to delete, then have you accept something else, then undelete. Alternatively, Anton might be able to do something with his super-duper powers.

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20547)

2012-11-20T15:16:17-08:00

No it does not work. I have tried.

Asaf Karagila comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20546)

2012-11-20T14:39:08-08:00

Just click on the check mark of the accepted answer to unaccept it.

Kerry comments on "Can someone unlock my question?" (20545)

2012-11-20T14:03:39-08:00

For some reason my question(http://mathoverflow.net/questions/110857/can-we-ascertain-that-there-exist-an-epimorphism-g-rightarrow-h) was listed as answered while it does not have a good answer. Can the moderator unlock this into the unanswered category?