4
$\begingroup$

I haven't logged in for a while now into my account, perhaps around a year, only to discover that I was greeted with the following screen:

enter image description here

I continued to "Confirm my account", even though I have posted a number of questions related to measure theory and probability theory in the past, so my account was already set up, only to discover that all my reputation is gone, and even worse, all my questions and their answers are gone. How can this be ??!!

Even more annoying is the fact that some of those answer I received were pretty important to me, and I haven't saved any links or keywords regarding them, so I can't even find them on the site. For example, now I'm dealing again with some measure theory after a timeout and I'm not sure if I may have asked that question already or not, and wanted to look up my old questions, where I might have already asked about that. But they are gone.

(Weirdly, what I posted on stats.stackexchange.com seems to be there without any issue. Note also that the account under which I'm posting this is the account in question. To recap: I can log in to my account with my old password and email, but all content that I generated on math.stackexchange.com with this account is gone.)

$\endgroup$
15
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Even if your account would have been deleted the questions would be preserved (except if they were all of poor quality). Maybe you can find the questions and that would shed some light on the situation. What exactly were the questions about? Also is there any chance you mixed up login credentials? $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:12
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @quid I can't find the questions because too much time as passed, as mentioned, which is very problematic for me right now. They were about fundamental things about measure theory - but there are hundreds of such questions on the site. I'm also not sure, if the questions are gone from my account, how do they appear to other readers now? 0% chance that I mixed up my login credential. Is this a bug of math.stackexchange perhaps? $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:28
  • $\begingroup$ The questions would appear with a grayed out user account. See this Q for an example. When did you ask them more exactly? $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:35
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @quid Again, hard to tell exactly unfortunately, because time passed. It must have been between 10-20 questions on my account that I asked probably between 2013 and 2017. I kept coming back and referring to the answers every once in a while when I had to deal with measure theory. $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:37
  • $\begingroup$ Here's an idea (born out of desperation). I remember to have read a long time ago (so I'm not sure how up to date this is) that there are some periodic backups of the whole stackexchange sites, saved somewhere, so that (theoretically) one could access everything offline. Wouldn't it be possible for someone to find my account there and see there the questions that were linked to it? $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:41
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ What do you remember about your account? Did you pick a username or just leave the default assignment (as you seem to have done this time when you set up the account)? Did you give an email contact for the old account? You mention "my login credential" but leave Readers guessing as to what that credential is. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Sep 22 '19 at 16:48
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @hardmath Not much unfortunately, since even during 2013-2017 I was only an occasional user. I don't think I picked a user name (please notice that I did not create a new account this time - I logged in my old account, but all the questions are gone). I used an email address to sign up and it is the email address that I used -and also used this time- to log in. [...] $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 22 '19 at 17:53
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ To find posts made by a user who has deleted their account: Is it possible to know the questions and answers by a no longer user? (Still, to use this you need their userid.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Sep 23 '19 at 8:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ You might be interested Who can delete an user account. I don't know whether high rep users can also do this, they can do this with any question and I think answers too. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:07
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ mod quid confirmed that high reputation users cannot delete accounts. $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 25 '19 at 15:31
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ May I ask you if you had a bad record with your account? // The thing is that I find very unfair what happened to you because you didn't want your account to be removed and it was! $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 25 '19 at 15:39
  • $\begingroup$ @user486983 Sorry about the late reply. I got really angry after this whole issue and chose not to use the site for a while. I use this account from a workstation where other people can access it as well (normal in the unis in the country that I live in) and apparently some mischief has been done with that I was no aware of. I would have expected at least some kind of warning, before they go all crazy on me, so that I can make sure to keep it safer. $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Oct 8 '19 at 15:25
  • $\begingroup$ @user52145 Don't worry. Sorry for the late reply too. So was someone from your uni the one who deleted your account? $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Nov 4 '19 at 21:25
  • $\begingroup$ @Isabella It was in a dorm ... $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Nov 15 '19 at 12:13
  • $\begingroup$ ohh. An annoying roomate.. :/ $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Nov 16 '19 at 16:25
7
$\begingroup$

The account was removed on purpose. Here is a list of its posts. (The last one was self-deleted.)

Ways to split nonlinear ODEs in linear part + nonlinearity that may work

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/327080/constructin-a-pw-disjoint-sequence-of-sets-from-a-given-sequence-in-a-semiring

$\left(0,1\right]\neq\biguplus_{k=1}^{n}\bigcap_{j=1}^{k}G_{j},$ Proving elegantly

A Borel algebra containing $\infty$

Borel sets including $\infty$

Proving that $x\mapsto \sum_{y\in A\cap\left(0,x\right]}r\left(y\right)$ is right-continuous

Proving $\mu(A)=\inf\{\mu(O) \mid A\subseteq O, O \text{ open}\}$

How is "point" in geometry undefined? And What is a "mathematical definition"?

Most Markov chain definitions are false

finite joint distribution implies infinite joint distribution?

A curious chain of Markov events

I'm having a row with a matrix

Sweet independence of my first passage time.

Error in a textbook exercise regarding dice throwing

Exercise in a book should be easy, my solution is too complicated to finish

An odd way to write down a probability using fractions

Reasons for defining $P(A|B)$ on $\Omega$ space instead of $B$

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2332239/nonzero-marginal-probability-implies-nonzero-joint-probability

$\endgroup$
14
  • 9
    $\begingroup$ Was it removed on request of the user, or for some other reason? $\endgroup$
    – Matt Samuel
    Sep 22 '19 at 20:17
  • 10
    $\begingroup$ This is not a piece of information that is to be disclosed on the request of uninvolved third parties. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 22 '19 at 21:11
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @Matt I'm sure the account was removed because of the awful pun in the title, "I'm having a row with a matrix". $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Sep 22 '19 at 23:30
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson Hey, these puns really helped to attract more readers which helped get better answers :p $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 23 '19 at 5:18
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ @MattSamuel I can confirm that the account was not removed on my request. Otherwise why would I complain here on meta about it?.... I've no clue why the removal happened. Actually, removal is not even the right word; see my next comment. $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 23 '19 at 5:20
  • $\begingroup$ @quid First, thanks a lot for bringing back the questions! How did you do it? (The word "removed" is slightly incorrect, since I could log in with my old login credential just fine. It was just that everything was deleted, so "account was purged" would be a better wording.) I'd be very interested in hearing about the reasons why it got; can you PM me? (I'm not even sure, can moderators write something like a PM to my stackexchange inbox?) $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 23 '19 at 5:24
  • $\begingroup$ Is there a way to re-associated those questions with the account, or reverse to disassociation of the questions, so that I can get my reputation points back? Or at least have those questions appear as usual in my "Questions" section, so that I don't always have to dig up this meta question? I appear on the site again like a newby (it says "member for 2 days"), whereas I've actually registered first years ago. $\endgroup$
    – user52145
    Sep 23 '19 at 5:25
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @user52145 I don't see why you think the word "removed" is incorrect; the page you show in the questions clearly asks you to confirm that an account is created, that is, there was none (anymore) prior to you just about now (re)creating an account on the site. This process is so especially simple as you did have/keep accounts on other SE sites. If it's about the button login vs signup the distinction between the buttons is very fuzzy. As requested I'll send you a message with more details. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 23 '19 at 7:49
  • $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson In that case they should have removed only that particular question, why to mess up with the rest of them? or they could have had the amability to edit the title $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 24 '19 at 15:53
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @user486983 Gerry just made a joke. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:07
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @quid what do you mean with "The account was removed on purpose." on purpose ? $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:20
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ @user486983 somebody in a position to do it, specifically decided to remove the account and took the appropriate action. It was not a software glitch, an oversight or anything, somebody though about it, decided this account should be removed, and did it. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:23
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @quid why? ${}$ $\endgroup$
    – user486983
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:33
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @user486983 that's not for you to ask about. See my first comment here. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Sep 24 '19 at 16:43

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .