tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (suspension)

sean tilson comments on "suspension" (8107)

sean tilson — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 19:17:54 -0700

I am not one of the more technically savvy users, but i am not sure what purpose a bot being on here would serve. Also, I don't exactly know if i agree with some of your tone Andrew, there is a big difference between you and the fellows in question. I think they have no idea what the point of MO is and i doubt they will be able to contribute significantly.

This is specifically spam, for the most part, without question, while i dont think that your posts are like that.

I am not interested in having this turn into a dramatic thread it has an expressed point, so if you want to reply contact me via email unless it is pertinent to the thread.

I really think the right thing was done here by scott. Not everything is appropriate for MO, in fact, I would guess most things arent appropriate for MO. When I think I want to ask a question here I first ask if my advisor would be annoyed by it or would want to spend 2 hours on it. He would certainly not be interested in spending time with me on cosets for 2 hours. I think the same is true of the other questions.

The one about cyclic homology is an excellent example, as it seems Yemon has pointed out, there may be a good question there somewhere, but it needs polish, so let the person polish it and request to reopen.

SeanTilson (gmail etc)

AndrewL comments on "suspension" (8008)

AndrewL — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 00:26:49 -0700

Well,everyone knows and tortures me,so it's not me.That's a relief..............

Sean raised an interesting and disturbing possibility:The fact the user is anonymous and refuses to make contact with any of the moderators suggests it may in fact be an automated infiltration of the board. i think the computer savvy users should investigate this possibility and how large a danger it may pose to the site.

If the user is an actual human poster and is reading this,I strongly suggest you get in touch with Scott or one of the other moderators to a) take your medicine and b) find out exactly what you're doing that's breaking the rules here.

If you keep challenging thier rules and authority, you'll be banned from the site for longer and longer durations until the ban becomes permanent.

Trust me,you don't want to go to this mat.

Sincerely,
Exiled User Andrew L.

sean tilson comments on "suspension" (7998)

sean tilson — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:59:32 -0700

It seems like at least one person is doing this a day now. I agree with harry on this one. There has been a suggestion that questions by new users have annoying adds suggesting they look at other sites first. Perhaps we can even start a discussiony overflow to be another redirect for things that do not belong here. or would it be possible to have them prove they are human?

Grétar Amazeen comments on "suspension" (5705)

Grétar Amazeen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:53:57 -0700

Good call! It seems like what you did was the only sensible thing to do. If and when said user contacts you, you can undo the suspension (if the user agrees to read the faq and act accordingly) and everyone will be happy.

Harry Gindi comments on "suspension" (5686)

Harry Gindi — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:18:17 -0700

And there was much rejoicing!

Scott Morrison comments on "suspension" (5684)

Scott Morrison — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:06:32 -0700

I've just suspended a user who has been asking lots of questions recently, at least half of which have been closed. The user hadn't provided any contact details, so I left a comment on one of his posts asking him to contact me by email (scott@tqft.net). Since leaving that comment, the user has continued asking questions. I had hoped to discuss his questions with him, as his activity has reached the point that it's annoying many users. I'm interpreting his behaviour as unwillingness to discuss the situation with me, so I decided to enforce a suspension until this becomes possible. In part, this was triggered by the fact that the user is anonymous, and has chosen not to provide the moderators with a contact email: we have a pretty clear policy that anonymity is fine, but you should expect much less sympathy from the moderators if you choose to stay anonymous but then cause complaints.

I realise that this might be considered inappropriate behaviour on my part, so I'm reporting the details here in case the community wants to overrule me. Suspensions are easy to clear, so this action can be undone immediately.

Let fly! :-)