No worries. To be honest, if your answer actually was the "final straw" that led to the closure of the question [I don't know whether this is true and am not interested enough to find out], some people would probably thank you for it -- probably including me. Speaking personally, I don't want to trade brainteasers over dinner, and I don't want to see brainteasers on MO: there are plenty of other sites for that. But I do think it's a matter of personal taste, so I generally don't vote to close such questions myself.

On a less frivolous note: I really can't see a reason for the question to stay open, and since I use the front page of MO rather than the sub-tags, while occasionally being interested in some big list and soft topic questions, the reappearance of this question irks me. That said, it is not something I feel I have an objective argument against (in terms of a question being at the wrong level, or argumentative, etc) so if enough people still actively want it reopened then I shall acquiesce.

PS: sorry if cross-posting, I didn't read all the answers...

Might I suggest that this is evidence that the thread has outlived the immense but finite usefulness evinced by its high score?

Edit: it seems that I misunderstood the remark that I've quoted -- see later posts in this thread -- so I would like to withdraw my inference, if not my opinion of the original question.

I like the iconoclasts who think differently than the rest. BUT, if you're going to try to be 'in' a community, then you need to try to make your thoughts comprehensible to 'the rest'. They may not agree, but at least should not feel that the answers (or questions) are spam or rude.

You might still get no traction with the community in some cases (see some of my own questions on MO which seem to have fallen flat), but nevertheless are seen as contributing (see some of my traditional answers to some mainstream questions).

I saw his post, which already had a number of negative votes. It made no sense to me, and apparently had nothing to do with the request for mathematical puzzles appropriate for dinner conversation. I see from Jon's explanation here that there was actually a puzzle, but his original post certainly didn't make this clear to me. By this point, Jon is the clear leader in terms of number of posts with negative votes, and to me at least most of his posts make no sense whatsoever. I decided that it was plausible on account of the many negative votes that many other people also can't make sense of his posts, and as such treated the post as spam (or at least, an annoying waste of people's time), and suspended Jon for a day.

Please -- do not turn this thread into a public discussion of Jon's behaviour on mathoverflow. If you have a comment to make about the particulars of this incident, please email me about it, scott@tqft.net. It's appropriate to speak in generalities about the suspension process, however.

Of all the times that a downvote calls for a supporting explanation, this is probably not one of them. The thing that leaves a residual bad taste is the misuse of a flag that most folks consider reserved to offensive posts, and then being sent away from the table. Those are more general procedural issues that I think deserve further discussion. A casual observer seeing that big red banner on my user page would think I committed some outrageous offense. I do not think that kind of sanction is called for here.

People who want to criticize the qualities of questions and answers are free to do so by means of comments or by means of thumbs-up and thumbs-down votes.

Using a flag that is normally reserved for offensive comments, deleting answers so that no one else can see what is being discussed, and suspending someone for a good faith answer — those actions go beyond the pale.

The 3 bulbs puzzle is another example of a not-really-mathematical puzzle.

I'm generally interested in problems that are mathematical and not just logic puzzles. They shouldn't require written calculations or a convoluted answer. And they should be fun — with some sort of cute step, aha moment, or other satisfying twist. I'd prefer to keep things pretty elementary, but a cool problem requiring a little background is a-okay.

If you post the answer, please obfuscate it … Don't spoil the fun for everyone else.

I posted the following puzzle:

“Theorem. In the long run, numbers get even.”

Now, I've actually used that one several times over cocktails, and it was always “well-received” as they say. The average cocktailer does a half-second double-take and realizes that every even number is singly even, every fourth number is once more than the singly even already accounted, every eighth number is once more than the doubly even already accounted, …, and so the obvious series tells us that whole numbers are on the (multiplicity weighted) average exactly even.

Well, I didn't want to spoil anyone's fun, but being suspended for that has already spoiled it for me.

More importantly, it's bad enough when people don't give reasons for their down votes — but I consider it a serious abuse of the "offensive post" flag to criticize a good faith answer that is given in the spirit of the question asked.

Jon Awbrey

Mais chacun a son gout. I personally find the question hard to defend against accusations of double standards (it is either big-listy or too-much-a-chatty-blog-topic, IMHO) but am refraining from voting to close just yet. Perhaps someone on this meta thread can sway me?

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/29323/math-puzzles-for-dinner