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dont post a lot here, because sometimes my questions here which I put significant time into writing get deleted (seemingly unilaterally), from almost "day1".

the nomination window ended with 3 candidates volunteering within the last minute, within the last three hours, so it wasnt clear who would be in the election, and there is no primary phase as on other sites where there are more volunteers/competitors for nomination to narrow the choices. therefore was hoping somehow to "think outside the box" & broaden them.

hence I decided to add to k's post which is now completely hidden from the main meta list some of whom are elite members of this site in the TCS field & eg spend quite a bit of time writing blogs, books etcetera ... luminaries of the field! it was intended for the record & future reference & maybe to spark some discussion on the subject. kaveh quickly deleted it within minutes of posting it and then locked down that post, which is within his right as moderator to do. (alphabetical order here)

however, my question to this list of the senior/elite/prominent/high-profile members of the site is, what can we do to make it better, to make it so you are more likely to engage/participate, either in meta or on the main site? what is working, what is not working? are you not here just because you are too busy? is there anything that can be changed in this environment that would tend to draw you in?

this is my fantasy team of tcs.se participants. of course not looking for major engagements such as moderating [although that would be way cool and a natural fit for your awesome leadership skills already amply demonstrated], but even small intermittent contributions would be fabulous.

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  • $\begingroup$ by the way, this is not meant to be exclusionary or taken exactly literally. a closely related answer might be "what can we do to attract more participation by elites in TCS" answerable by anyone. $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Jan 24, 2014 at 22:38
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    $\begingroup$ While I have some problems with wording ("elite members") I think there is a valid question here: what, if anything, about CSTheory could be different so that community participation is wider and deeper? $\endgroup$
    – Sasho Nikolov
    Jan 27, 2014 at 17:16
  • $\begingroup$ btw/fyi re communication/style/conventions raised in below response: the msg above was entered starting with the standard/polite/courteous salutation "hi all" (something my msgs to this site often start with) but the robotic/mindless software deleted/filtered it out automatically ... $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Jan 29, 2014 at 17:07
  • $\begingroup$ found this similar old post what is cstheory lacking? (+7!) & think its worthwhile to revisit how to improve this site/group/"society of science" in general, wrt constructive suggestions, more frequently than every 3+ yrs! =\ $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Feb 5, 2014 at 17:06

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Just a small remark on your writing (I don't have enough reputation for comments). I think that one very strong reason that some people dislike your writing is that you use a very careless way of writing which is very weird. E.g., instead of writing "I don't ..." you write "don't ...". And you repeat this dozen of times. This is very unpleasant to read.

Also don't use abbreviations like "cos", etc. This is really inappropriate writing. Try to be more formal and careful.

I say this as a friend, and I'm not trying to offend you.

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  • $\begingroup$ thx "friend" pt taken. my opinion, the meta side in particular should allow some informality, disagree with ref'ing to it as careless. many write emails in this style. or also chat style and it relies on what is called implied subj which is a legitimate english grammar construction even in formal writing, but agreed it is different. engage a lot in chat with many & it is chat style. want to encourage an atmosphere of collegiality on this site where not every word must be exact english, its an intl site with many foreign speakers... $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Jan 25, 2014 at 15:09
  • $\begingroup$ speaking of style, do experience some cognitive dissonance on papers that refer to we written by a single author. am not advocating my style of writing to all members, it is personal style. others are free to spend time fmtting their writing on the site & certainly encourage that. ps why are you focusing on this trivial minutia issue & why have you not posted your relevant concerns re moding style you listed in chat to meta? feel free to reformulate them in a more diplomatic way here.... $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Jan 25, 2014 at 15:19
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    $\begingroup$ Well, I just find the style annoying, and counter productive. I've never seen in any stack-exchange site any user who writes like this. $\endgroup$
    – user13756
    Jan 25, 2014 at 15:50
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    $\begingroup$ Well, if you want to exert your human diversity it's fine. I just think this style repels many people here, and this damages, what I thought is, your major objective here: to discuss scientific issues. $\endgroup$
    – user13756
    Jan 25, 2014 at 17:16
  • $\begingroup$ ah! so you are telling me what I value and say it is my major objective here to talk about science issues. tell you what dilworth! how about I write up the above post, capitalize it, run it through a spell checker, have my friends review it, cite some papers on psychology/sociology, and then submit it to arxiv. do you think that would help with the issue raised in the meta question above? are you saying that my style is currently the main impediment/barrier to cstheory.se prospering and drawing in more senior researcher engagement? is that the point you're making above? $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Jan 25, 2014 at 20:55
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    $\begingroup$ @vzn As a rule I don't read your posts because they require major effort. If you can't be bothered to make the slightest effort to make yourself understood (and decent grammar and spelling, including capitalization, is a step towards that), why should I and everyone else expend significant effort to wade through your “stream of consciousness”? I don't come to Stack Exchange to read poetry. $\endgroup$
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jan 25, 2014 at 22:59
  • $\begingroup$ hi all! [prior comment(s) were mod-deleted] very much enjoying the silly/ridiculous/circus spectacle/sideshow of many/high rep members jumping on the huge pile of a response by 42rep Dilworth, who has since completely disappeared from the site, to pile on & flame my writing style/2yr existence here/achievements into oblivion via excessive/record level comment votes.... just like the clowns in the volkswagen circus act =) alas, verging on tipping pt of death by paper cuts? $\endgroup$
    – vzn
    Feb 17, 2014 at 17:30

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