tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (A modest proposal)

Will Jagy comments on "A modest proposal" (5096)

Will Jagy — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 15:57:14 -0700

Yes, misleading. I typed in the title without thinking about it at all. Later I remembered all the advice and editing of MO titles when people gave poor descriptions of their problem, and wondered if anybody would read this. But I did not find any obvious method for editing the title, although now that I look I will see what happens when I click on "edit" in my initial post. Also, in case this is what you meant, there are varying opinions on what Swift meant us to learn from the piece, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Modest_Proposal . If this wikipedia link turns out to be the same one you added I will attempt to edit this one out.

Regenbogen comments on "A modest proposal" (5076)

Regenbogen — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:40:39 -0700

The title was misleading! I mean, the reference to Jonathan Swift's original.

Will Jagy comments on "A modest proposal" (5044)

Will Jagy — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:03:45 -0700

You are too kind.

Harry Gindi comments on "A modest proposal" (5043)

Harry Gindi — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:22:08 -0700

Oh, by the way, Will, +1 for the title of this post.

Will Jagy comments on "A modest proposal" (5042)

Will Jagy — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:14:01 -0700

I understand. Thanks to you both. I did wonder whether it might be considered important that there be "no barriers to participation."

François G. Dorais comments on "A modest proposal" (5039)

François G. Dorais — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 20:10:01 -0700

+1: Scott

Scott Morrison comments on "A modest proposal" (5038)

Scott Morrison — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:58:57 -0700

Oof, poor timing. The comments on that post have all been (consensually) deleted, and replaced with something Noah wrote.

In fact, I think a week quarantine is a terrible idea!

We actually don't have a problem at all with the wrong people posting. More precisely, the "wrong sort of questions" are dealt with quickly, and in most cases politely and appropriately. The moderation powers distributed amongst the users are more than sufficient to deal with this, we just need to continually work on civility and helpfulness (me especially, sometimes). Much of that work happens here on meta, as we all try to explain to each other what we think is going on, and what should be done better. A lot also goes on via email (as you can see from the fact that both Will and I corresponded with people over email in regards this one post!).

Even if we did have a problem, a week quarantine would be a horrible solution. It's really important to mathoverflow that there are no barriers to participation: a mathematician can hear about mathoverflow, load it up, and jump right in. We're really excited about this, and there are lots of features in the software encouraging this (e.g. we're happy that you don't even need to register to post!).

François G. Dorais comments on "A modest proposal" (5037)

François G. Dorais — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:47:03 -0700

Will, I think the best solution in such cases is simply to edit the annoyances away, as Jonas did. It sends the right message and it decreases the visual pollution. It takes 2000 points to edit other posts. I know you're a little short right now, but you will get there soon. There are currently over 80 users with over 2000 points, which will increase with time...

Will Jagy comments on "A modest proposal" (5036)

Will Jagy — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:05:02 -0700

I noticed a question today in which an annoyed comment was posted, see
http://mathoverflow.net/questions/22532

I wrote to Theo and he suggested I put something on Meta, so here it is.
One of Theo's phrases "Do you realize that quadruple question marks are unlikely to get your question taken seriously here" gave me an idea, which is that people be unable to post any question until they have been registered for, say, a week.

This still allows the same privacy the site currently supports, makes no judgements on what they do eventually. All it does is force someone to an extra step and a week of staring at the site before they get to ask for help. This will not change anything with people who are really dedicated to getting something for nothing, but might give pause to the average high-school student or crank. That is, the question "Do you realize" might have an affirmative answer for some, given a little lead time.

If I can figure out how to re-enter Meta after leaving it I will look at responses in the coming days. However, as always, I welcome individual replies, search for my last name at http://www.ams.org/cml

William C. Jagy
Berkeley, CA