Timeline for MathOverflow policymaking and transparency
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 10, 2021 at 2:30 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | Let's just try to keep things constructive. Your answer under Martin Sleziak's recent meta post is much better. | |
| Jan 10, 2021 at 0:09 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | @ToddTrimble No worries. I have no intention of relitigating that. I was just pointing out that there are downsides as well as upsides to moderator intervention. Having been on the wrong side of it, I may have injected my own value judgment that it is heavy-handed. At any rate, I'm happy to replace that with 'judicious', 'vigilant', or whatever you think fits. | |
| Jan 9, 2021 at 21:29 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | Harry, could you please not kick up even more dust by painting moderators as taking unreasonable actions in other cases and anticipating things getting "even worse"? This is not something to be discussed in these damned comment boxes, and it's really off-topic (relative to the current thread). The whole MS saga is not to be rehashed and relitigated here. | |
| Jan 9, 2021 at 18:32 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | Harry, I have an impression that MS has returned as a new pseudonymous user, and thus is once again contributing good mathematical responses. Besides, not everyone who has ceased or heavily reduced participation has done so for the reasons that Mark appeared to, and in at least one case I think they did so not because of the mods but because the mods were not clamping down on behaviour that you and others think is fine | |
| Jan 9, 2021 at 16:57 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | @YCor Several people have left in acrimony publicly on meta.MO, often in reaction to action by the administrators/moderators (iirc Mark Sapir, for instance). I would expect this to happen more if the administration decides to be even more heavy-handed. Adults generally don't like to be treated like children. | |
| Jan 9, 2021 at 14:22 | comment | added | YCor | I don't know whether they can be considered as "outsiders", but some past contributors have ceased their participation for some definite reason, either by declaring it, or just progressively passing from frequent participation to very scarce or none. In some cases it might be related to feeling uncomfortable here for whatever reason. | |
| Jan 8, 2021 at 20:29 | comment | added | LSpice | For what it's worth, if the problem is the community being unwelcoming to outsiders, asking the community how they feel about it is unlikely to lead to resolutions. It seems to me it makes sense to look outside an insular community to figure out changes that can be made within that community. (That is, I think we're coming at this from the perspective of insiders, but I think that the relevant perspective now is that of, as it were, outsiders.) | |
| Jan 8, 2021 at 1:41 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | Harry, I think it painted a very misleading picture. While I am not privy to any of the discussions Ravi has had with various people over the years, I think it's jumping to conclusions that there were groups approaching him and seeking to set policy. My guess it was more private individuals occasionally relaying concerns, or something. Maybe you could ask him. What I can say is that there have been no such groups contacting the moderators. Or at least I'm not aware of any such (and I think I'd know). | |
| Jan 8, 2021 at 1:32 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | Just for the record though, Todd, my original statement wasn't way off the mark, as Ravi has now confirmed in his answer (in fact, the information I had matches up exactly with Ravi's post, and I heard it through three different sources with quite a bit of precision, so I wasn't really taking shots in the dark here). I think it's not completely forthcoming to compare this to a conspiracy theory. | |
| Jan 8, 2021 at 0:07 | comment | added | Steven Landsburg | @tj_ : Your comment makes me wonder how much experience you have with decision making for large organizations. Believe me, I have quite a bit, and if you ever want to get anything done, then the last thing you want to do is throw every question out to the community at large for "brainstorming" right off the bat. | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 23:58 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | @tj OK so you meant to say that they do not consult the community, not that they do not contribute to it. FWIW, I am not at all sure what "the community" is. | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 23:51 | comment | added | tj_ | @Yemon Choi: Take Todd's answer above. Instead of making a brainstorming within the community to collect ideas, board and moderators choose some persons in a totally non-transparent way from them they hope for ideas. So, in fact, they don't let the community contribute, but some persons, those list "is not a matter for the MO Community". | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 23:26 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | @tj_ What do you mean by "isn't willing to contribute the community in a significant way"? As far as I am aware the moderators, who should not be identified with "the managers", do quite a lot of work behind the scenes | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 23:18 | comment | added | tj_ | "The list of people we compiled is not a matter for the MO Community to vote on, nor is it even a matter up for discussion." - Well, I consider MO as a forum that is managed by a closed group of persons, who wants the content of the community, but isn't willing to contribute the community in a significant way. I feel confirmed in my opinion by your post. Maybe some of the problems you address ("What should or can we do about it, if anything? We really don't know.") could simply be overcomed by making moderator elections regularly and having some new moderators with new ideas from time to time | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 16:58 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | I hope so too. We are in a very preliminary stage, obviously. | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 16:55 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | Thanks! I hope you'll report back to us periodically about what is going on with this. I also think it ought to be on meta.MO, as I mentioned earlier. This way we won't be confronted with an unworkable or nonsensical policy at some unknown point in the future. I'm uncomfortable with the idea that this has to be held in secret. | |
| Jan 7, 2021 at 16:46 | history | answered | Todd TrimbleMod | CC BY-SA 4.0 |