tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (How to deal with strange or off-topic comments)

Scott Morrison comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7361)

Scott Morrison — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:11:10 -0700

By the way, I've changed the default order of the categories here on meta. (Just moved "community" to the top, so it's the default for people who don't pay attention.) If anyone would like the ordering to be different again say so here.

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7360)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:09:29 -0700

There's a Wikipedia entry for what I thought was a horrible pun? I must have been living under a rock this past 6 years.

[Edit: I mean 8! Of course! I really am a mathematician.]

Noah Snyder comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7359)

Noah Snyder — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:07:05 -0700

Wikipedia says that the blog Making Light (which is widely aknoweleged as one of the best moderated comment sections) were the main pioneers of disemvoweling as a a moderation technique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling

Harry Gindi comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7358)

Harry Gindi — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:27 -0700

Disemvoweling is often used on PZ Myers's blog Pharyngula to deal with persistent trolls.

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7357)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:59:17 -0700

Please, please tell me that you've actually seen disemvoweling implemented somewhere.

If not, you should file for a Patent.

Noah Snyder comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7356)

Noah Snyder — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:53:58 -0700

This is the problem with not being able to downvote comments... In the long run the right solution is that a few downvotes will make the comment become lighter and lighter in print color. This, like disemvoweling, seems to be a good troll deterrent.

Andy Putman comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7355)

Andy Putman — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:41:42 -0700

Yeah, I don't think his comments are usually offensive. They're just weird and somewhat off-topic. That's why I've always hesitated at clicking the "flag as offensive" button on them, though I suppose one could argue that they're a bit spam-ey.

My usual policy is to ignore them unless they are seriously misleading (for instance, when they concern career advice) or genuinely insulting/offensive. However, I'm seeing more and more of them lately, and I don't want them to crowd out more on-topic things.

Harry Gindi comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7353)

Harry Gindi — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:33:32 -0700

I'm not allowed to respond to him anymore =(.

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7352)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:28:18 -0700

@Kevin: I think he has already been called out a few times (for other reasons), see the remarks in the comments for

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/32340/should-algebraic-structures-closed-under-at-least-2-binary-operations-where-one-i

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/32104/should-a-standard-course-on-number-systems-be-abandoned/32105#32105

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/32231/techniques-to-bound-products-of-upper-triangular-matrices-and-their-inverses/32235#32235

I find his comments brash but (usually) not offensive. And considering that he probably won't listen to asking, I'd just ignore the comments. (But please don't let this become a repeat of the fpqc bash-fest. )

Kevin Lin comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7350)

Kevin Lin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:13:54 -0700

In seriousness, though, it is possible that such comments could be confusing/misleading. We could ask him to try to refrain from posting off-topic comments?

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7349)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:10:40 -0700

@Andy: I almost did that a few times myself. Precisely because the form is not completely familiar to many people is why I am wondering if we can swap the orders on the form. Maybe that should be a feature request. :)

Andy Putman comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7347)

Andy Putman — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:06:25 -0700

@WillieWong : Whoops! In my defense, I almost never start discussions on meta (I think this is maybe discussion #2), so I'm not all that familiar with the interface.

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7345)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:04:53 -0700

Slightly off topic: is it possible to have the "Start new discussion" form default to General or Community for the category? I know I am a pedant, but recently there have been several instances of discussions that doesn't really belong in "Feature Request" appearing as such.

WillieWong comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7344)

WillieWong — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:01:36 -0700

And as far as this particular member's comment goes, those weren't actually really bad.

Just remember that on the intar-webs you are not supposed to feed the trolls. [N.b. this is not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, just a general policy.]

Noah Snyder comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7343)

Noah Snyder — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:56:34 -0700

Either ignore them or flag for moderator attention depending on how bad you think the particular comment is.

Kevin Lin comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7342)

Kevin Lin — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:48:19 -0700

3'. Lol and ignore them.

Andy Putman comments on "How to deal with strange or off-topic comments" (7341)

Andy Putman — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:44:35 -0700

I have recently noticed a profusion of strange comments (mostly by one particular MO member) that either are unconnected to the question/answer at hand or are weird and overly personal. For instance, the last comment on the question http://mathoverflow.net/questions/30632/theoretical-physics-why-not-just-r4 and the last comment on the answer http://mathoverflow.net/questions/32397/vectorspaces-without-natural-bases/32421#32421 . At first, I just posted comments asking for clarification. However, in retrospect that doesn't seem like a good response as it simply continues filling up the comment boxes with off-topic stuff (I've since deleted my comments).

Question : How should we deal with such things? I guess the possible answers are : 1. Flag them as spam, 2. Post comments asking for clarification, or 3. Ignore them.

ED: changing the category to "Community"