tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed ("Does Anyone Know Who Said This?")

AndrewL comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16552)

AndrewL — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 20:53:34 -0700

@gilkalai Ok,I thought it was a reasonable question for the historians in the room. I still don't think it merited a suspension-they could have simply messaged me that they felt in was inappropriate given that whether or not it WAS an appropriate question was a debatable point. My mistake was not asking the moderators on Meta first before posting it. But as I said,I thought it was a reasonable question. I assume NOTHING from now on given the climate in here. See you in the funny papers.

Andrew L.

gilkalai comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16546)

gilkalai — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:20:07 -0700

Andrew, I also agree that it is not a reasonable MO question. Asking to verify an anecdote of this kind in not appropriate.

Regarding the strict and definite rules imposed on you, dont you agree that they are beneficial? You did make some reasonable posts within these rules and as your understanding of mathematics increases making undisputed even technical contributions will become easier.

AndrewL comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16545)

AndrewL — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:06:29 -0700

@gilkalai I was told once as an undergraduate that I.R. Herstein was lecturing to an audience and he was asked why he didn't use the standard boldface Z to denote the integers and he supposedly responded, "I no longer recall how to speak German."- a reference to the Nazi occupation of his native Poland and the tragedy that resulted. I was recently mocked for this and found no online evidence Herstein said this. I wanted to know if anyone else knew of this anecdote and could tell me who in fact was supposed to have said it. And for THAT, I was booted off. I thought some of the more historically knowledgeable experts in here could help me with that.

gilkalai comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16544)

gilkalai — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:57:59 -0700

What was the question?

AndrewL comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16543)

AndrewL — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:38:02 -0700

And me getting back on here looking for information and hoping to be treated in a civilized manner was clearly an even bigger error by me,Scott. I didn't think those rules applied for a lifetime-especially when it was a legitimate question. But since almost everyone here seems to be entertained by booting me off if I sneeze at the wrong trajectory angle,I'll just take my ball and go home again. Sorry to have wasted your 4 minutes.

Andrew L.

Scott Morrison comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16540)

Scott Morrison — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:52:58 -0700

There are special rules applying to AndrewL's use of MathOverflow, which have been spelled out at length on meta. This post broke those rules. After AndrewL last broke those rules, I proposed to the moderators that we switch AndrewL from the linearly increasingly suspension model to an exponentially increasing one. As there were no objections, I've applied the appropriate suspension, and also deleted the post. That was 4 minutes of my time that I'd like back, please.

Will Jagy comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16539)

Will Jagy — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:38:32 -0700

What I noticed is that there is likely no difficulty fitting a full answer in a comment box or two, should someone have an answer.

dan petersen comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16538)

dan petersen — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 13:29:24 -0700

Why on earth is Andrew L himself listed as one of the people who voted to close?

Yemon Choi comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16537)

Yemon Choi — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:48:46 -0700

While I don't think it's a very good question, I can't help feeling that if it had been asked by someone else - one of the senior mathematicians with some interest in history or trivia - the response would have been more favourable. So while I can't disagree with

Plus the OP has a long history of posting terrible questions/answers/comments and making the moderators' jobs unpleasant

I'm not sure this should be held up as the main reason for closing or re-closing the question. Also, it's actually much better (in an MO context) than some of the OP's previous questions/answers/comments, IMHO.

That said: I reiterate that I don't think it's a very good question, even if it irks me less than some recent big lists that have been bobbing back to the surface.

Andy Putman comments on ""Does Anyone Know Who Said This?"" (16536)

Andy Putman — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:34:37 -0700

The following question was quickly closed :
http://mathoverflow.net/questions/78004/does-anyone-know-who-said-this-closed
However, it now has 3 votes to reopen, so I thought I'd start a meta thread on it.

The case for closing seemed pretty open-and-shut to me. It's a question about some half-remembered bit of trivia from the OP's undergraduate days. No mathematical content whatsoever and no real math-history content, and as the comments indicated it sounds like it is unlikely to have any basis in fact. Plus the OP has a long history of posting terrible questions/answers/comments and making the moderators' jobs unpleasant, so I see no reason to cut him any slack. Do we really want to encourage him to start posting again?

What does everyone else think?