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Feature requests: First question

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    Hi,
    [Let me first say that I do not want to start controversies, this is just a feature that seems reasonable to me, and if you disagree, that is fine.]

    It seems desirable that the first question by new users is not posted until approved by a moderator. Once this happens, the user would then be able to post as usual.

    This way we would weed out a *lot* of the homework questions that we seem to be getting all the time. Of course, it would increase the work of moderators, but I would expect that serious questions and users would be obvious to identify, and those that seem to require some discussion could perhaps be posted here first (by a moderator) to decide on their approval. If we leave the vote down/close system that is already in place, that would take care of those inappropriate questions that went through the filter unnoticed.

    Just an idea.
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    It sounds nice, but I think there's a significant chance that this would annoy many senior mathematicians enough that they wouldn't use the site.

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    This kind of moderation is standard for moderated email lists and similar venues. I think it's not a bad idea, but we might allow a workaround for users who register with a valid email.

    • CommentAuthorgrp
    • CommentTimeJun 10th 2010
     
    One consequence would be a significant delay between submitting a first question and seeing it appear.

    This delay would make the site much less attractive to new users. I do not think Math Overflow is large
    enough to have policies that discourage newcomers. When several new people submit questions every
    hour, or when it is decided that the current community wants to discourage new members, then such
    an idea might be useful (with several active moderators), but then it just takes a question and hides
    it from the community at large.

    MathOverflow is supposed to be community moderated; it seems contrary to take this burden and place
    it on the backs of just a few members.

    Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2010.06.10
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    I would advocate advising (in the FAQ) new users to answer one (or more) question
    before proposing their own. Of course, people are reluctant to take advice;
    how many new users actually read the FAQ?
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    @Robin: I don't think that'll be workable, since it'll also make it extremely stressful for new users who aren't quite as confident as later-year graduate students or actual professors.

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    Harry, I can't see how offering advice might not be "workable".
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    Hmm, my (apparently incorrect) understanding was that you were suggesting that it would be strongly frowned upon if people did not do this. I guess I read a bit too much into it.

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    You may not realize that 10K+ users have access to an interface which can show us all recent posts (questions and answers) by new users. Here is some data: In the last 24 hours, the questions asked by new users were

    poly-time algorithm to choose elements of sets
    Recommendations for a large scale bounded variable least squares (BVLS) solver for sparse matrices
    formal completion
    Weighted Hardy Inequality for bounded domains
    Permutation of group theory [closed]
    permutation of group theory [closed]
    non-linear mixed integer programming question
    1/z,residence on the point of the grid origin [closed]
    Irreducible representations of Heisenberg algebra
    Using derivatives and a optimization, what is the equation of the highest volume cone that can be inscribed in a sphere with radius r. [closed]
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    Also, a while ago I wrote a little script that creates a public view of the "posts by new users" information. You can see that output at http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/new-user-posts/. The script that creates this is a bit of a hack; please let me know if there's some way to improve it.

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    Well, all of the links get broken. Perhaps you could trick the script into thinking it's being run from the actual MO URL?

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    Fixed. I just rewrite all the href="/xxx" and src="/yyy" to include http://mathoverflow.net/. Anyone who finds this useful should let me know if there are other problems.

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    Hi Scott, I think the script have some problem.
    I tried the link you provided and I was redirected for page with the right information but seems that I was logged in your account.
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    I think you are not logged in as Scott. It looks like it, but if you click on any links they are broken, so you can't use his moderator powers or anything like that.

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    You right Amazeen, I was just wanted to tell him that the script could not be working as he wanted.
    • CommentAuthorRavi Vakil
    • CommentTimeJun 15th 2010
     
    One key strength of MO is that it is *completely* frictionless to begin --- you don't need to register, and you can dive right in. I realize that most people start by making a comment or answering a question, but I'd lean against adding friction to new users in any way. (It is true that for many active members, this kind of friction is no friction at all. But the key thing is that this site is not just for those people.) Of course, I don't know how much pain people are going through dealing with inappropriate new questions; if it is a real problem, there may be a case for putting a stop to it.
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    @leandro and @Gretar,

    yes, because this page is usually only accessible to moderators, my script logs in as me, makes a local copy of the page, then puts it somewhere web accessible. When you view the page, you're not actually logged in as me! One way to verify this is to follow the links at the bottom of the page to "page 2" of the list of new user posts. You should get an error message from the real mathoverflow, which won't admit to you even the existence of this moderator only page.

    Nevertheless, to avoid confusion I'll go modify my script so it strips out the parts of the page that make it look like you're logged in as me!

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