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Etiquette: Troll alert

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010 edited
     

    That's the guy!

    Take a look at all of his answers.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010
     
    Yes, I've been flagging as spam. I liked your "bro" comment. How did you manage to ask 98 questions?
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010 edited
     

    I have no idea, but I asked like eight questions in the past week (fall break woohoo!)

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010
     
    To get that many I would need to ask for birthdays of world leaders, one country at a time.
  5.  

    This guy asked a bunch of questions a few days ago that were closed and deleted as spam. Maybe he decided the only way to participate is to tell everybody else to go away ... a very strange way to join a community. I've given him the benefit of the doubt.

    To get that many I would need to ask for birthdays of world leaders, one country at a time.

    I'm sure you could come up with another way, like asking for the first positive integer you haven't asked for yet 98 times.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010 edited
     
    I could ask about the number of bottles of beer on the wall. There is historical precedent.

    Meanwhile, I have been wondering whether to put a comment suggesting that Annix or Anixx or whatever look at the thread on his
    http://mathoverflow.net/questions/42550/find-a-closed-form-for-sum-k1x-1-a1-k-closed
    which has some 33 comments. I'm not sure.
  7.  

    @Will: However, I am not #1 in questions asked. That honor goes to my esteemed colleague Qiaochu Yuan.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010
     
    102 is a pantload. I couldn't even do that with beer bottles if I started with no questions.
  9.  

    @Will: Meanwhile, Mark Sapir's comment on that question is priceless.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010
     
    Interesting that at one point he asks if he should provide proof that he is doing professional research. That would make a difference to me, a real name, a setting or an affiliation even if it is industry, and a reason anybody else should care about the question. Well, for now it has quietened, I think I will let it be.
    • CommentAuthorAlex Bartel
    • CommentTimeOct 17th 2010 edited
     
    I couldn't restrain myself from leaving a rather less well-tempered comment for the troll than that Anton left and I'm almost regretting it.
    http://mathoverflow.net/questions/42568/localization-at-central-maximal-ideals/42573#42573

    Edit: luckily that answer has been deleted anyway.
  12.  
    Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall!/Aleph-null bottles of beer!/If one of those bottles should happen to fall/Aleph-null bottles of beer on the wall!
    • CommentAuthorYemon Choi
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2010
     

    fraktur c bottles standing on the wall / fraktur c bottles standing on the wall / if aleph null bottles should accidentally fall / there'll be fraktur c bottles standing on the wall

    (I thought briefly about doing the CH version, but it didn't seem worth prodding my brain cells back into life just for that purpose...)

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeOct 18th 2010
     
    Another answer by Harry's guy. Flagged as spam.
  15.  

    That honor goes to my esteemed colleague Qiaochu Yuan.

    Actually Martin Brandenburg and Theo J-F both have Qiaochu beat (not that it's a competition). I suspect Martin's 119 is the winner, but who knows.

  16.  

    Once you remove the questions that were actually asked for a reason pertaining to research...

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     
    This one is the pattern of asking short, divisive questions, stirring the pot if attacked directly, otherwise sitting back and enjoying the chaos. Which is indeed happening, I have participated in that.
    http://mathoverflow.net/questions/45000/graduate-school-differences-closed

    I would have said this directly to Mark Sapir but putting a troll accusation right there seemed to be too much, amounting to feeding it.
    • CommentAuthormarkvs
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     
    @Will Jagy: Is it correct that you called me a "troll"? Isn't it an insult?
  19.  
    markvs, I took it that Will Jagy was referring to the one who posted the graduate-school-differences question, and that what he was saying to you was merely, "don't feed the troll." Apologies all around if I'm misunderstanding Will's intent.
    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2010
     
    Gerry, you are correct, thank you. Now I'm glad I opened Meta again before going to bed, as I did not initially know who lower case markus might be.

    Mark, or Markus, whatever is accurate, I was calling the user, "Ron P," who asked the question a troll, not you.

    What I had hoped to accomplish was to point out that this was exactly what the person who asked the questions wanted, the more people fighting the better, a moderator involved the best of all. Nobody but the moderators have much way to tell whether two trolls appear to be the same person, and even that is uncertain. The pattern of this one is clear, whether one person or many. Short questions allowing enough room for dissension, then sit back and watch.

    It is risky to call an OP a troll, because then they have grounds to fight back, How dare you call me a troll. So such discussions are usually kept to Meta until it is obvious to everybody. I rushed to put a comment there because I was uncomfortable with you and Ben fighting.

    Mark, in future, if you believe you have a problem with me, I wish you would email me. Group discussions of a committee-meeting type, as on MO or Meta, continue to strike me as unstable and tending towards increasing argument instead of calming it down. I took a chance on defusing the graduate-schools discussion, I'm not sure that was worth doing, but I was correct about the nature of Ron P.

    Also, if anybody wishes to tell me I screwed up, I wish you would email me individually. I can be located quickly at http://www.ams.org/cml
    as well as a gmail account that some of you know. I am much more comfortable with one-to-one conversations, and for most people on MO that means email.
  21.  

    Troll alert - see also here

    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010 edited
     

    I am much more comfortable with one-to-one conversations, and for most people on MO that means email.

    If you give me your phone number, I will call you up and tell you my deepest fears. You can be sure that they involve polar bears, volcanos, and a pool full of blood-flavoured jello.

    (This is of course the kind of jello with fruit floating in it, but instead of fruit, it's human hands.)

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010
     
    Harry, I would love to hear from you. I am listed in the Oakland-Berkeley phone book, but more relevant is that my home phone is included in my listing at http://www.ams.org/cml

    Does the jello have human eyeballs? I think it should.
    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010
     
    Yemon, I don't see anything at the question link out of the ordinary. But one hallmark of these guys is deleting the evidence after they have had their fun, so that is consistent with thet user ID you link to having no entries at this particular time.
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010 edited
     

    Harry, I would love to hear from you. I am listed in the Oakland-Berkeley phone book, but more relevant is that my home phone is included in my listing at http://www.ams.org/cml

    You win this game of chicken dear sir.

    I was just making fun of certain people making certain very private information very public.

    However, sir, you might find the following amusing:

    Wikipedia link

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010
     
    Actually, Harry, I'm not sure I have ever spoken with anyone I know through MO. Or met. I do sometimes go to Evans Hall for the library, and even upstairs to talk to some fairly senior faculty (automatic age minimum if they were there when I was a grad student). Also I cannot immediately tell of whom you were making fun, at the same time I do not doubt that you have something or someone appropriate in mind. So I did not mean to spoil the joke. Not a good record lately on that front.

    I am not optimistic about this guy:
    http://mathoverflow.net/users/10625/god
  27.  

    (The funny part of that wikipedia link is that you did not post that thread =p)

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeNov 6th 2010 edited
     
    Harry, thanks for pointing that out, cute. The OP's title disagreed with the body of the question, I both edited the question and put in the Manin-Coleman episode as an answer, Keith Conrad filled in the details I could not recall.

    EDIT: Indeed somebody put in Manin-Coleman under Mordell conjecture, then if you click on Coleman 1990 it takes you to the reference. So it is an ordinary wikipedia reference with a link but no number.
  29.  

    Not sure about troll, but certainly spammer alert: http://mathoverflow.net/users/10663/ecologicyborg

  30.  
    ecologicyborg has been around Freenode IRC for years under various names. I wouldn't call him a troll either, but he's someone to keep an eye on; if he makes more posts, they'll be in the same vein as the two that have been closed.
    • CommentAuthorHarry Gindi
    • CommentTimeNov 8th 2010 edited
     

    Nice catch, thermo.

    (Secret identity compromised)

  32.  

    Troll Alert: Cory-J has been posting useless one-liners.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeDec 1st 2010
     
    There was also some other idiot on one of cory j's who answered twice about sunglasses. So I have learned that I have a daily maximum of 5 spam flags.
  34.  
    I've tossed out my 5 spam flags for the day, too.
  35.  

    Have flagged a few of these (I see we also had some bona-fide old school spam from 'kabin-01', not just trolling a la Cory-J)

  36.  

    You guys are quick! My guess is that we'll have some more trouble for several hours, but having posts automatically deleted by the community user is usually enough to make trolls get bored pretty quick.

    1. You don't have a maximum number of moderator flags. A moderator flagging something as spam takes effect immediately and we don't run out of spam flags.
    2. You can leave a comment saying "please flag as spam". It is certainly counterproductive to leave a comment that attempts to engage a troll.

    Note also that there's no sense in suspending this user since he wouldn't lose any abilities he couldn't regain by simply making another user. This way, we at least have a constant identity to follow, rather than playing whack-a-mole with different incarnations of the same troll.

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeDec 1st 2010
     
    Anton, right. I think I understand the alternative you are describing.

    I was thinking this might make a good sticky post, as there seems to be repeat intermittent business with fairly obvious malefactors, while more complicated situations will generally need their own threads anyway.
  38.  

    @Will: but this thread bumps to the top whenever a troll appears anyway. What advantage is there to having it sticky?

    • CommentAuthorWill Jagy
    • CommentTimeDec 1st 2010
     
    That makes sense, Anton. I suppose I thought people might not know how to find it, I'm not very good at searching these. What I thought would be the down side is if people put more convoluted discussions here instead of starting individual threads. Anyway, I take your point.
  40.  

    WillieWong said: "Troll Alert: Cory-J has been posting useless one-liners."

    If it was Cory-W, I would have thought it could be this guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc0CB6URrV0

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