Timeline for Unregistered Users (in Theory and in Practice)
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 12, 2019 at 16:20 | comment | added | Dima Pasechnik | regarding 3, it seems to me that the activity in question involves bots, and not only real people typing questions... | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 7:43 | comment | added | user141498 | @MichaelHardy you see Michael, when you register you have to confirm your e-mail by clicking on a confirmation link. Unregistered accounts are the accounts created when you are not logged in any registered account and ask a question or post an answer. You have to pick a username when doing so, and afterwards you can confirm your e-mail, so your unregistered account becomes registered. So no oxymorons here. | |
| Jun 9, 2019 at 2:48 | comment | added | Michael Hardy | What is an "unregistered account" with a user name? I'd have guess that being "registered" means having a user account. So having an unregistered account with a user name seems oxymoronic. $\qquad$ | |
| Jun 6, 2019 at 10:46 | comment | added | Stefan Kohl Mod | Wouldn't it mostly solve the problem without doing any significant harm if posts of new or unregistered users would be shadow banned until successfully having passed the "First Posts"- / "Low Quality Posts"- and questions also the "Close Votes" review queue? | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 15:29 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | I will just add that the linked discussion was specifically about registering for asking questions (not posting answers). While it is true that registration might scare of some users, it's probably still better than if they later find out that they no longer have access to their account. Probably I should have stressed this aspect back then, too. (On Meta Stack Exchanges you can find more details about cookie-based accounts.) | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 15:02 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | @cardinal Actually, as soon as one of the answers has score at least one, the question is no longer bumped by community user. It is not necessary that the question actually has an accepted answer. Some links with the basic info on community user can be found in the tag-info. There was also an older question on this meta that touches on purpose of bumps by the community user: Auto-bumping of unanswered questions. | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 14:00 | comment | added | user74900 | I agree with you that one special feature of this case might be that even if the anonymous user happens to ask a reasonable question and they happen to receive a reasonable answer, they won't accept the answer and thus the system is going to send this question to the front page sometimes. Though I personally think it is the weird behaviour of the Community user that is at fault here (never really understood why they built the software this way, it also causes some issues with the big-list questions I think). | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 13:56 | comment | added | user74900 | you can deal with the questions individually, if some of them are really low-effort to the point of being incomprehensible, just flag them (or what is the usual procedure?). No new ideas needed here. If you feel like there is a consistent stream of really bad question, a suspension on the IP address might be instituted, I think that is possible in terms of technical means. | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 13:54 | comment | added | user74900 | regarding question 3, I am not convinced we should care about the nefarious intents of the anonymous user. In the past, Anton Geraschenko has stated, I think, that MO is not responsible for somehow banning people who cheat on homework, it is only responsible for maintaining its own quality standards. If they do publish a plagiarized paper or thesis and you happen to notice it, you can in private capacity notify the relevant university but I do not think that MO as a community has to care (given Anton's earlier stance on a similar issue). | |
| Jun 3, 2019 at 13:51 | comment | added | user74900 | regarding question 1, I am not sure how exactly are the IP addresses registered but at some large math departments (at large state universities in U.S., for example) there can be potentially more than 3 people who at some point of their careers wish to anonymously contribute to MO. In the current situation, it seems that only questions are being asked while the valuable anonymous contributors tend to give answers; this distinction might be useful. | |
| Jun 2, 2019 at 23:31 | comment | added | Christian Remling | I believe concern 3 (let the MO community write your thesis/paper) is not unique to unregistered users. I can remember registered users using MO for asking slowly evolving questions on one and the same topic over and over again and not doing anything else here. | |
| Jun 2, 2019 at 16:14 | comment | added | Gerhard Paseman | Your feelings and impressions are important. So you should talk about those. Would you feel you wasted time if someone else engaged with you about your answer? Gerhard "I Feel This Is Important" Paseman, 2019.06.02. | |
| Jun 2, 2019 at 15:56 | comment | added | Steven Landsburg | @GerhardPaseman: I am mildly annoyed that I took the time to answer one of these questions when I could have spent my time thinking about a different question that someone actually cared about. One sometimes answers a question in the hope that the answer will interest someone. These particular questions mostly seem unlikely to matter much to anybody but the OP. Now that it appears that they also don't matter to the OP, I feel like I wasted a (very small amount of) my time. I am presumably not the only one. | |
| Jun 2, 2019 at 15:48 | comment | added | Gerhard Paseman | 1. Yes. 2. No. 3. No. If a number of questions are posted publicly with the result that more mathematics is considered and created, and the basic mission of the forum is fulfilled, then we should not care who posts them. Ultimately, it does not matter about the responsiveness of the poster so much as the responsiveness of the community. Since the information provided is widely accessible, I could try to make a thesis out of it if I were so inclined. Would you be as concerned if this were a syndicate and not an individual? Gerhard "Would Cite MathOverflow, Of Course" Paseman, 2019.06.02. | |
| Jun 2, 2019 at 14:44 | history | asked | Steven Landsburg | CC BY-SA 4.0 |