tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared)

Jon Bannon comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12364)

Jon Bannon — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:12:31 -0800

Thanks for the comment, Scott. I'll keep this in mind when asking future questions of this level.

Scott Carnahan comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12361)

Scott Carnahan — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 12:35:18 -0800

Perhaps the question should be reworded so that the questioner does not appear to presuppose the existence of a very speculative correspondence. I see no problem with asking naïve questions, but it helps when they are delivered with a soft touch. For example, you might ask something like, "Is the arithmetic topology analogy precise enough to yield an explicit correspondence between knots and primes?"

jonbannon comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12351)

jonbannon — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:42:56 -0800

@FrictionlessJelly: Why the friction? It is clear that my *amazingly* naive question was asked with very limited sharpness...and obviously was not as targeted as I would have liked. I tried to delete it, particularly due to your remark...(which, by the way, was clear)...but now the question has been resurrected. I'd really be interested in knowing why this question irks you so much. If you'd like to vent about it, please e-mail me at jbannon@siena.edu.

Perhaps the trouble is that my approach to learning a new subject is to *ask* the naive questions when they arise. I certainly can refrain from doing so if it is offensive to MO users...sharper questions are certainly easy to come by.

Frictionless Jelly comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12349)

Frictionless Jelly — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:01:42 -0800

Let me just say that this question had me frothing at the mouth, and I restrained myself as much as I could.

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12348)

Anton Geraschenko — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 17:59:03 -0800

I've undeleted the question with Jon's approval.

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12326)

Anton Geraschenko — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:28:45 -0800

I emailed Jon Bannon (the question owner) with that link. I also asked him if he wouldn't mind me undeleting the question.

Kelly Davis comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12315)

Kelly Davis — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:46:57 -0800

FYI, Lieven Lebruyn made a blog post attempting to answer the original question:

http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/what-is-the-knot-associated-to-a-prime.html

Kelly Davis comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12312)

Kelly Davis — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:53:34 -0800

Cool, thanks.

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12311)

Anton Geraschenko — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:49:48 -0800

I can't actually show you a different page based on whether the question never existed or was deleted, but I have modified the 404 page to point out the possibility that you might be looking for a question that was deleted.

Kelly Davis comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12309)

Kelly Davis — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 00:22:22 -0800

Ok.

It might be nice if it left some trace not simply a 404 error. Something like:

"This question was deleted by the owner."

This way others might know what happened. In the current way of doing things there is no way for me to determine the difference between an owner deletion and a DB error.

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12307)

Anton Geraschenko — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 23:59:25 -0800

It was deleted by the question owner.

Kelly Davis comments on "Question "What is the knot associated to a prime" disappeared" (12306)

Kelly Davis — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:51:23 -0800

The question that was here...

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/50879/what-is-the-knot-associated-to-a-prime

is no longer. AFAIK, it was not closed. It looks like some DB hiccup.
Ideas as to what happened?