I have been flagging these posts individually, but I thought maybe a meta question would be a good follow-up, in case the moderators are not aware of the behaviour. As @YemonChoi points out, the author of the post Is renormalization a valid reason why the riemann hypothesis could be undecidable? has been creating many new accounts, which originally asked about a specific paper, but now appear to be moving on to general questions about the Riemann hypothesis. I don't think the questions themselves are valuable, as I described; but, setting that aside, surely the MO norm is not to allow a multitude of accounts for the same person.
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4$\begingroup$ That may not be the norm, but it has precedent. As long as the accounts are non voting or minimally so, and each individual account behaves nicely, there should be no cause for alarm. However, some of these accounts do not behave nicely. My recommendation is to flag, and then comment why the flag was raised. Gerhard "Recommends Consistent Teaching By Example" Paseman, 2020.08.08. $\endgroup$– Gerhard PasemanCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 19:09
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9$\begingroup$ @GerhardPaseman, I know that there are some users who sling multiple accounts harmlessly; but, if all the accounts are pushing the same message, as here, then it begins to me at least to smack of some sort of effort to evade consequences for questions or amplify his voice. (I admit I don't really understand the point of these multiple accounts—there is at least, clearly, no attempt to obfuscate that they all come from the same person—but am still made uncomfortable by them.) $\endgroup$– LSpiceCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 19:14
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4$\begingroup$ At least one of these accounts was suspended for "low quality posts", I presume this is why the user needs a different account, but it is definitely an abuse of the system. $\endgroup$– Carlo BeenakkerCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 20:00
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4$\begingroup$ We're dealing with this and we also forwarded to SE staff in case there is need for network-wide action. Thank you for your investigative work! $\endgroup$– François G. Dorais ModCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 20:52
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$\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais, thanks! Just to be clear, I did no investigative work, and so deserve no credit for it; probably @YemonChoi does if anyone does. $\endgroup$– LSpiceCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 21:05
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2$\begingroup$ @CarloBeenakker I think there were multiple accounts even before one of them got suspended. My own assumption was that this was a new user who didn't realise or care that every time cookies are cleared a new account got created, and to be honest I just wanted them to commit to one of those accounts $\endgroup$– Yemon ChoiCommented Aug 9, 2020 at 0:07
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1$\begingroup$ I actually noticed such a flooding in May-June: Riemann Zeta function and Catalan's constant, The Cauchy principal value of the Riemann Zeta function, Limits of Functions Involving the Riemann Zeta Function, General definition for a zeta function, A question on the Riemann zeta function. (...) $\endgroup$– YCorCommented Aug 20, 2020 at 10:26
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1$\begingroup$ (...) On the Absolute Value of the Riemann Zeta Function on the Critical Line, Representation of the Riemann Zeta Function as a Product $\endgroup$– YCorCommented Aug 20, 2020 at 10:26
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1$\begingroup$ @YCor I have not looked at all of these, but they seem different in tone (and basic maturity of expression) than the accounts LSpice is referring to $\endgroup$– Yemon ChoiCommented Aug 23, 2020 at 18:21
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$\begingroup$ I'm pretty sure this user must be related: mathoverflow.net/users/165356/user165356 $\endgroup$– Sam HopkinsCommented Sep 15, 2020 at 4:40
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1 Answer
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What they're doing here on MathOverflow is relatively harmless. They're also active on other sites in the Stack Exchange network, where they are posting downright abusive stuff; here are some examples. That doesn't mean they're forbidden to participate here, but it speaks volumes.
Do note that sometimes users don't register themselves (because they don't want to or don't know the benefits); the system will remember them by the cookies in their browser but if those are cleared, they'll end up using a new account if they visit the site again. Or they might have forgot their credentials and simply signed up with a new account.
answered Aug 8, 2020 at 19:15
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10$\begingroup$ Wow. That certainly does make a search for easy proofs of the Riemann hypothesis pale by comparison. $\endgroup$– LSpiceCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 19:25
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6$\begingroup$ Thank you for the additional information. We have notified the SE Team about this user since their disruptive activities are spread across several sites. $\endgroup$– François G. Dorais ModCommented Aug 8, 2020 at 20:55
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1$\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais can you notify the SE team again? Check Glorfindel's link again, there's some pretty weird stuff going on. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModCommented Aug 11, 2020 at 4:16
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$\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais I am not 100 percent sure but some of the behaviour of this account metasmoke.erwaysoftware.com/… looks similar (both in terms of preoccupations and patterns of action) $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 6, 2020 at 3:59