up vote 10 down vote favorite

In these volatile days of dramatic arguments over meta, my suspicion alarm is set to a much more sensitive threshold.

And I wonder, If $n$ the order of a group and $\gcd(k,n) = 1$ then there exists an element in the group has garnered over a 10,000 views in just 15 hours.

Sure, it happens with the Batman question (probably?) or with other fairly "popular mathematics" questions. But this is not the Batman question, it is not the Russian roulette question, etc. For one it only has five registered votes at the time (+3/-2).

Furthermore the OP had tried to cover up their tracks by editing the question into gunk, only to be rolled back by Austin Mohr a few minutes later.

All this raises a mighty suspicion. Can anyone shed some light?

Another point by draks, is that the OP had posted another question today which raised over 1,500 views, which is another questionable number of views in a single day -- for a non-popular question (popular as in popular mathematics, e.g. Batman curves).

share
His other question has also been viewed 1858 times! – draks ... Dec 12 '12 at 19:53
4  
It's because someone is actively trumpeting them on Reddit and Hacker News as cheating. This is being discussed in the mod chat. – Gone Dec 12 '12 at 19:55
1  
@BillDubuque I don't think it merits a question of its own, so I will just ask here: Was my comment that the OP had blanked a question out of line? I noticed the blanking and made the rollback, and I wanted to inform other users should they prefer not to answer such a suspicious question. I believe I took care not to state the fact without insinuating that OP had done anything wrong. – Austin Mohr Dec 12 '12 at 20:09
5  
@BillDubuque I notice that you are battling Qiaochu on main. You have unlocked the post in question - which he had locked - and removed his notices multiple times in the past hour. I find this extremely immature, and I hope that you will stop immediately. – user1296727 Dec 12 '12 at 22:30
5  
He has also deleted comments. Note that unlike deleted questions, deleted comments are, as far as I know, invisible to everyone except moderators and cannot be undeleted. – Qiaochu Yuan Dec 12 '12 at 22:35
3  
@AustinMohr I was glad you pointed out that he had blanked his other question. It was a neutral statement of fact, not an accusation or a speculation, and I found it useful to know. – MJD Dec 12 '12 at 22:39
@AustinMohr "I believe I took care not to state the fact without insinuating that OP had done anything wrong." One too many negatives in there... My point is that I tried to provide objective information only. – Austin Mohr Dec 12 '12 at 22:41
2  
Assuming comments have been deleted from other people than the person doing the deletions, I find such behaviour incredible. If this has been done by a moderator, I think it is totally deplorable. Is there absolutely no way that lesser mortals like myself can ever get to see what was deleted? – John Wordsworth Dec 12 '12 at 22:42
2  
@Old John: not as far as I know. Corollary: if you have something important to say, don't say it in a comment. – Qiaochu Yuan Dec 12 '12 at 22:43
3  
@user1296727 You need two people to keep that up, both sides should have stopped reverting each others actions far earlier. If two regular users disagree over an edit, they should not start an edit war. This applies to mods as well, even more than for regular users. Instead of reverting each others actions they have to talk to each other or put it up on meta. – Mad Scientist Dec 12 '12 at 22:44
3  
@Mad Scientist: you are welcome to attempt to talk to Bill about anything. I have given this particular thing up. – Qiaochu Yuan Dec 12 '12 at 22:45
@QiaochuYuan: You can always printscreen and post a copy on meta (you know, for transparency sakes and whatnot). – Asaf Karagila Dec 12 '12 at 22:47
@MadScientist I do agree with you that the repeated reversion (and reversion of reversion, etc.) of the post's closing should be discussed in an independent meta question, or amongst the moderators. – user1296727 Dec 12 '12 at 22:50
1  
I'm locking this question for the time being. Nothing wrong with the question or the answer, but the personal disputes going on in the comments are taking over the discussion here and this isn't the right place. We are currently looking at possible ways to resolve the entire situation. – Anna Lear♦ Dec 12 '12 at 22:50

1 Answer

up vote 17 down vote accepted

The question was linked on Hackernews, which is a rather high-traffic site: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4910406

share
3  
Wonderful. We're seeing the Stack Exchange equivalent of rubbernecking.... – user1296727 Dec 12 '12 at 22:23
On the bright side, maybe the story will deter a few cheaters in the future. – Austin Mohr Dec 12 '12 at 22:43
Do you happen to have the reddit link as well? – Asaf Karagila Dec 12 '12 at 22:59
5  

You must log in to answer this question.

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