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Is there a name for the principle that the more interesting a topic is on a Stack Exchange forum, the more likely it is to be closed?

monort 9y ago
And Scott Aaronson quits mathoverflow due to this "off-topic" policy: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-complexity-of-number-theory#comment698104_282869 https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-comp...
- weinzierl 9y ago
  This is so sad, MathOverflow was once such a great community. Here is his comment for context: > I regret to say I'm ending my participation in MathOverflow, for the same reason I decided a decade ago never again to edit Wikipedia. It's hard to express how disheartening it is to spend hours of volunteer labor explaining stuff---in this case, in a way that at least 19 MO users apparently found useful---only to have your work overridden by a smaller set of users, for being (part of something larger that's) "off-topic" or whatever it is. Who the hell has time for that? From now on, if I have math questions, I'll post them on my own blog. Was nice being here for 6 years; thanks everyone. – Scott Aaronson 3 hours ago
rayuela 9y ago
Wow that was such a great discussion too. What an infuriating choice by the mods. I wholeheartedly agree with Aaronson's decision to leave the platform for good.
hyperpallium 9y ago
"closed as interesting" Wikipedia and stackexchange both aim at being reference works. There are different phases in the journey to that goal, and an unfortunate casualty of maturity is the loss of interestingness. Strikes me as similar to startups, fun when small, horrible upon enterprise "maturity". Many people like the early stages, yet the latter is the goal...
jimhefferon 9y ago
OK, in the absence of any other name I am declaring it Hefferon's Law.
ZeroClickOk 9y ago
IMO, if you have some problem, and want to post in some Stack Exchange site, now you have 2 problems... I'm really sick to try formulate SE questions, Im most interested if the question will be closed instead of think how can I get a answer... Im too frustrated and I see a lot like me frustrated too. I'm really really tired to fight against SE Zealots...

monort 9y ago

And Scott Aaronson quits mathoverflow due to this "off-topic" policy: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-complexity-of-number-theory#comment698104_282869 https://mathoverflow.net/questions/282869/the-enigmatic-comp...

weinzierl 9y ago
This is so sad, MathOverflow was once such a great community. Here is his comment for context: > I regret to say I'm ending my participation in MathOverflow, for the same reason I decided a decade ago never again to edit Wikipedia. It's hard to express how disheartening it is to spend hours of volunteer labor explaining stuff---in this case, in a way that at least 19 MO users apparently found useful---only to have your work overridden by a smaller set of users, for being (part of something larger that's) "off-topic" or whatever it is. Who the hell has time for that? From now on, if I have math questions, I'll post them on my own blog. Was nice being here for 6 years; thanks everyone. – Scott Aaronson 3 hours ago

rayuela 9y ago

Wow that was such a great discussion too. What an infuriating choice by the mods. I wholeheartedly agree with Aaronson's decision to leave the platform for good.

hyperpallium 9y ago

"closed as interesting" Wikipedia and stackexchange both aim at being reference works. There are different phases in the journey to that goal, and an unfortunate casualty of maturity is the loss of interestingness. Strikes me as similar to startups, fun when small, horrible upon enterprise "maturity". Many people like the early stages, yet the latter is the goal...

jimhefferon 9y ago

OK, in the absence of any other name I am declaring it Hefferon's Law.

ZeroClickOk 9y ago

IMO, if you have some problem, and want to post in some Stack Exchange site, now you have 2 problems... I'm really sick to try formulate SE questions, Im most interested if the question will be closed instead of think how can I get a answer... Im too frustrated and I see a lot like me frustrated too. I'm really really tired to fight against SE Zealots...