tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Porton)

Harry Gindi comments on "Porton" (19093)

Harry Gindi — Sun, 20 May 2012 00:22:58 -0700

I have an idea of who it might be, but I haven't asked. Porton happens to be part of a few other math groups, some of which are a bit less professional than mathoverflow.

Angelo comments on "Porton" (19092)

Angelo — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:14:56 -0700

To Andy: I was not suggesting you were the one who was picking on him. Of course, your explanation is spot on.

Andy Putman comments on "Porton" (19091)

Andy Putman — Fri, 18 May 2012 23:05:26 -0700

Fair enough, Angelo. I agree that he is very polite and doesn't really cause any trouble. I was more trying to explain why I suspect that so many people downvote his posts. I've personally voted to close some of them, but they have never annoyed me to the point where I downvoted them.

Angelo comments on "Porton" (19090)

Angelo — Fri, 18 May 2012 22:34:03 -0700

Porton is an amateur mathematician with rather grandiose ideas about the importance of his work. You can certainly call him a crank, but he is polite, and much less bothersome than other users. I would avoid picking on him.

Andy Putman comments on "Porton" (19088)

Andy Putman — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:56:13 -0700

I suspect that people are downvoting his questions and flagging them as spam less because of his specific questions (which strike me as weird and not great, but probably inoffensive) but rather because of his well-known reputation as a crank. See, for instance, http://www.mathematics21.org/abel-prize.html

Neil Strickland comments on "Porton" (19087)

Neil Strickland — Fri, 18 May 2012 13:58:44 -0700

Something a bit funny is happening with downvoting and spam-flagging of questions by porton. The relevant questions (http://mathoverflow.net/questions/72600/direct-product-of-filters, http://mathoverflow.net/questions/22104/connectedness-of-uniform-and-proximity-spaces, http://mathoverflow.net/questions/61118/my-modified-definition-of-multifuncoids-and-a-question-about-ultrafiltrers) are not great questions, but they are very far from the kind of thing that we generally count as spam. It would not surprise me very much if no one upvoted them, but it is odd that they should have 8-10 downvotes each.