14
$\begingroup$

I was reviewing the Low Quality queue and there were about 27 queued items to review (unusually high in my opinion; I don't think I've ever seen more than about 5 at a time). It seems that nearly all of them are the same user. And, nearly all of the answers given by the user are essentially solutions using Maple.

A lot of them I agree are low quality. Whether or not they should all be deleted is debatable. I think some of them are helpful, especially when the user just wants an answer (not an explanation of the proof). I personally am a big fan of computation... so I don't want to exclude Computer Algebra solutions.

What worries me, is that perhaps this user was targeted (someone got upset with them, or didn't like his/her style and flagged every one of his/her answers). It also worries me that many people may not feel as kindly towards computational solutions as I do. That being said, I suspect that a large fraction of the "Maple" answers don't really address the question that was asked.

What, if anything, should be done? I've included a link here to one of the questions this user answered that is in the queue for review. This user's answer is at the bottom (Maple solution). I should also mention, many of the answers this user gave are a year or more old; but, the user seems to still be active.

$\endgroup$
8
  • 11
    $\begingroup$ This user is well-known for stuffing Maple input/output around the site. Organized clean-up is long overdue. See Answers composed entirely mechanically, e.g. by computer algebra systems $\endgroup$ – user147263 Sep 20 '15 at 4:00
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @NormalHuman, thanks for the insight. That is a very helpful link. I feel much less bad about recommending that a large portion of those answers be deleted. $\endgroup$ – TravisJ Sep 20 '15 at 4:04
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @NormalHuman : I would like to know what does "Organized clean-up" means. $\endgroup$ – user99914 Sep 20 '15 at 4:28
  • 11
    $\begingroup$ @JohnMa It looks like this, only with flags and votes instead of brooms. $\endgroup$ – user147263 Sep 20 '15 at 4:40
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ What should be done? Look at each flagged post individually, and decide which way to vote by looking at the question and the answer. There are a few cases where the answer uses Maple but the question asked for Maple - in that case, the answer should probably be kept. For other questions, answers that just quote how to use Maple, with no theoretical verification that the answer is correct, are probably less useful. $\endgroup$ – Carl Mummert Sep 20 '15 at 15:10
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ The answer under the link is already removed. I received these posts in my queue too. Skipped all of them except one which seemed most useless and ill-formatted. $\endgroup$ – zhoraster Sep 21 '15 at 6:47
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @CarlMummert, that is what I did. I guess I was most concerned that all the flags were in the queue at the same time, meaning the same 3-4 people would review them all... if those people "didn't appreciate computational solutions" then perhaps a number would be deleted that otherwise wouldn't. What if, for example, someone didn't like "hints as answers", and had a tiff with someone, then flagged all their "hint as answers." If there were a couple who didn't appreciate hints, then that person might suddenly find a bunch of answers deleted. $\endgroup$ – TravisJ Sep 21 '15 at 12:33
  • $\begingroup$ @G-man, you think I know an answer? $\endgroup$ – zhoraster Sep 26 '15 at 18:30

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .