tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?)

Will Jagy comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11251)

Will Jagy — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 10:16:05 -0800

To fill in some blanks, Wadim remained unhappy with voting patterns (more than closings) and no longer posts on MO. My friend Dmitry regards it as standard Russian thinking to look for the hand of, say, the KGB, or less popularized agencies/institutions I could not name. It is not clear to me how seriously Wadim took that sort of idea. I can say that he was quite surprised when I directed him to look at Meta, how very open the deliberations were. So the discussion changed in nature. It was originally the Mafia, I suspect I came up with MOfia.

The down side is that most votes come from unknown users, often fairly junior people. Wadim would post a promising technique for something similar and get downvotes for not answering the exact question. There were several other types of things that went wrong, and the last thing I want is a dissection here of Wadim's answers, just as I could hardly stand to see a dispassionate evaluation of mine. But he did get angry and left the site. From time to time I see an obvious Wadim question, but I no longer email him about those.

Mariano comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11249)

Mariano — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 08:25:34 -0800

Wadim++ for coming up with Mofia!

Harry Gindi comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11248)

Harry Gindi — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 06:10:47 -0800

@Will: My favorite was "NARQ squad".

Gerry Myerson comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11245)

Gerry Myerson — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 04:13:26 -0800

Will, I'm here to promote conspiracy theories, not to indulge them.

Will Jagy comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11232)

Will Jagy — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:50:10 -0800

Gerry, Wadim called it the Mofia. Ask him.

Harry Gindi comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11231)

Harry Gindi — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:42:10 -0800

Gerry, hold that thought... while you've still got your hands.

Gerry Myerson comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11230)

Gerry Myerson — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:15:15 -0800

Michael, there's a secret underground cabal that discusses closing questions - especially your questions - and you have to know the secret handshake to be let in on them, and if I tell you any more they'll kill me.

Ryan Budney comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11229)

Ryan Budney — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:19:20 -0800

Are you thinking about this thread, Michael?

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/48191/how-mathematicians-knowledge-is-organized-closed

Usually what happens in a borderline thread like yours is there's discussion in the comments. Usually someone mentions they're going to close or they think it's not an appropriate question. If there's no further discussion in the comments thread it is oftentimes closed quite quickly. If there's significant discussion in the comments, an interested party creates a meta thread here to discuss the thread there -- and includes a link both in meta and the original thread so that people can easily go between the two. Sometimes the initial thread is closed before the meta discussion progresses very far, and then sometimes the thread is re-opened after some discussion on meta.

That's roughly the procedure.

Scott Morrison comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11227)

Scott Morrison — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 19:03:02 -0800

In the comments thread following a question, and here, but sometimes not at all.

It's always okay to start a thread here asking about votes to close, and indeed to add a comment to the question linking to the thread here.

Michael Hardy comments on "Are decisions to close discussed somewhere?" (11226)

Michael Hardy — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 18:25:28 -0800

Are decisions to close a particular question discussed somewhere where they can be read by people other than moderators (if that's what they are) who close a question?