Big Brother censorship at MHF

[dwsmith]

So I was recruiting a member of MHF to MHB and sent a link with www.mathhelpboards.com in the pm. I was pmed back saying the link is missing. So I checked my sent mail and the link was removed as well as the mention of MHB in the pming.

 

[CaptainBlack]

So I was recruiting a member of MHF to MHB and sent a link with www.mathhelpboards.com in the pm. I was pmed back saying the link is missing. So I checked my sent mail and the link was removed as well as the mention of MHB in the pming.

This has been the case since the early days of the present regime on MHF. But you have provoked me to sneek reference to MHB into my MHF stuff to see how long it takes to bet an ID banned now the dragon is sleeping.

CB

 

[dwsmith]

This has been the case since the early days of the present regime on MHF. But you have provoked me to sneek reference to MHB into my MHF stuff to see how lonk it takes to bet an ID banned.

CB

Any time I enter the name or website, it is purged from my pms and left blank. If I write math help boards . com, it hasn't caught it yet.

 

[MarkFL]

This has been the case since the early days of the present regime on MHF. But you have provoked me to sneek reference to MHB into my MHF stuff to see how long it takes to bet an ID banned.

CB

I did a double-take when I saw a certain familiar avatar...then erupted with laughter when I saw the text beneath it!

 

[MarkFL]

So I was recruiting a member of MHF to MHB...

I have been on the fence about this, and I just can't personally justify actively recruiting from other sites. I just feel this is somewhat unethical. Don't get me wrong, I do not condemn others for doing this, but for me personally, it just doesn't feel right.

There is a member at MMF I would love to invite here as this person is quite clever and knowledgeable, in fact at one point I thought this person was our own CB.

So, instead I have followed CB's lead somewhat and have been judiciously promoting our site on Yahoo answers, but only when someone asks for links to sites where they can get active help.

 

[dwsmith]

I have been on the fence about this, and I just can't personally justify actively recruiting from other sites. I just feel this is somewhat unethical. Don't get me wrong, I do not condemn others for doing this, but for me personally, it just doesn't feel right.

There is a member at MMF I would love to invite here as this person is quite clever and knowledgeable, in fact at one point I thought this person was our own CB.

So, instead I have followed CB's lead somewhat and have been judiciously promoting our site on Yahoo answers, but only when someone asks for links to sites where they can get active help.

When I notice questions that are easily to answer and of my likening (PDEs), I tell those people where to come especially if there questions aren't getting answered. That way they will ask questions I want to answer here and they get help. Otherwise, they are just waiting and I have nothing to do here.

 

[dwsmith]

Plus, I am doing it through PMs which are supposed to be private, i.e. not being monitored for MHB stuff. I am not starting threads that say hey MHB this way.

 

[MarkFL]

I certainly don't and won't make any judgements against you for doing what you feel is right. Plus, telling someone where they are more apt to get their questions answered is somewhat different from just recruiting.

 

[Evgeny.Makarov]

It's possible to use URL shortening services, such as goo.gl, to disguise a URL in a post or private message.

 

[Deveno]

MHF is suffering from absentee leadership, the remaining staff are increasingly frustrated by their inability to deal with on-going latex rendering problems, as well as the flood of ad-bots that sprout up daily.

however, this is offset by the fact that a google search still lists them as the #1 result.

(entered: forum for math help).

other rankings of note:

MMF is #3
PF is #4
MHB is #5

take heart, growth is an exponential phenomenon, a slow start does not mean a slow finish.

some things that occurred to me that might increase traffic (besides, you know, the obvious one of paying for ads):

"stickied" categories with individual threads of common answers to common questions (it's important the threads be separate, so that search engines return hits on the separate titles). for example, in the calculus section one could have threads labelled:

L'Hopital's Rule
The Product Rule
The Chain Rule
Mean-Value Theorem (etc.)

this forum already has some "partial examples" of this type. more would be good.

if it's not against forum policies (i really wouldn't know) sections with links to freely available online texts (legal ones, not the pirated kind). the demand for "one-stop references" of often hard-to-find subjects in mathematics is relatively high.

unfortunately MHF is sort of like General Motors (TBTF). even gross neglect only seems to hurt them in the short-term. i have no opinion on whether or not anyone from this forum actively "recruits" for this forum (i don't, but it's more from laziness than any high moral standard), but of course, the other forums may have such opinions.

 

[Jameson]

I want to comment on the ranking of MHB.

Adding custom math content is a great idea and something we have a bit of, as Deveno said, but could certainly use more of. However, after being online less than 1 year we are doing great in terms of our search engine ranking. SEO is way more complicated than it seems and after investing around $600 in advertising last year I learned this fact even more. There are many, many search queries that people use when searching for math help. These can be classified into tiers of competitiveness. "Free math help" for example is a very competitive query whereas "linear algebra proofs" is less so (and that's one where we do very well).

We will continue to try to advertise MHB but the best formula for success will be to keep up the great community and standards we have established + time. No site is really too big to fail in my opinion, even though for long periods of time it seems that way.

 

[dwsmith]

"Free math help" for example is a very competitive query whereas "linear algebra proofs" is less so (and that's one where we do very well).

We now have notes on Engineering Analysis, Fourier series and integral transforms, and Advanced ODEs/Dynamical Systems. See if those help with advertising.
Also, can you make all the links only available to registered user? This way you force registration for the content and they may become active.

 

[dwsmith]

We now have notes on Engineering Analysis, Fourier series and integral transforms, and Advanced ODEs/Dynamical Systems. See if those help with advertising.
Also, can you make all the links only available to registered user? This way you force registration for the content and they may become active.

Could you guys make it like this:
Say someone is perusing the site and clicks on the link to the Linear Alg proofs, could it then say the link is only available to registered members?
And then a something for them to click to register.

 

[CaptainBlack]

I did a double-take when I saw a certain familiar avatar...then erupted with laughter when I saw the text beneath it!

I'm just curious about how long it will take to get banned, its a sort of test of how often Mash looks at MHB (I'm sure there will be a Quisling reporting me).

CB

 

[topsquark]

Well, as a fence sitter myself I really don't care much about which forum a member uses, as long as they get the help they need.

As far as mash showing up I have a strong suspicion that he hasn't been around, simply because he hasn't threatened to ban me yet. (I've been somewhat vitriolic in many of my PMs to him.)

FYI: I'm sure there are spam bots at work against MHF but most of the problems I'm seeing are from actual members. Many of them have actually filled out personal information.

-Dan

 

[CaptainBlack]

I have had to remove MHF from my favourites at work since the level of spam porn on their is not acceptable in a work environment, so I cannot monitor it from the office any more.

CB

 

[Deveno]

i kno rite?

an awkward conversation with my girlfriend last night when i was checking MHF for interesting problems....

 

[Poirot]

Everyone over there should just abandon ship immediately. It's overrun by spam, much of it of a disgusting and sordid nature.

 

[MarkFL]

My thoughts on the recent pornographic spam-attack there...

If I were a moderator there, I would begin a topic in the forums in which it has been posted a) warning users that it is there and b) explaining that the administration is MIA and has left the staff with no ability to clean it up. Put the blame where it should be, so new users don't get the idea that it is condoned by the staff.

But then, with no ability to sticky topics, this means they would have to be bumped periodically.

 

[dwsmith]

My thoughts on the recent pornographic spam-attack there...

If I were a moderator there, I would begin a topic in the forums in which it has been posted a) warning users that it is there and b) explaining that the administration is MIA and has left the staff with no ability to clean it up. Put the blame where it should be, so new users don't get the idea that it is condoned by the staff.

But then, with no ability to sticky topics, this means they would have to be bumped periodically.

If you don't want to be associated with it, relinquish your staff or helper title. If the admins and mods don't want to take care of the site, don't be a part of the recognized group (bold, colored titled people). If a enough of the helpers and such leave, maybe the members will follow. Why continue to promote a slum? By promote, I mean stay active there.

 

[MarkFL]

Without an admin, titles/groups cannot be changed/relinquished.

The active staff there simply have no ability to get it under control; it's not a matter of not wanting to, but rather not being able to, since the admin has tied their hands and then disappeared.

Most are there simply to help students.

 

[dwsmith]

CB you avatar inspired me but mine is more to the point.

 

[MarkFL]

Yes, that is quite direct and to the point!

 

[alane1994]

Wow, I just visited MHF... and I am not sure whether or not it is a math help forum or a porn site... very poor taste mash, very poor.

On a side note, thank you to all the the people who keep this site clear of that sort of content.

 

[dwsmith]

Wow, I just visited MHF... and I am not sure whether or not it is a math help forum or a porn site... very poor taste mash, very poor.

On a side note, thank you to all the the people who keep this site clear of that sort of content.

What confuses me is why so many contributors, students, helpers, etc are so adamant on staying at MHF instead of moving to MHB.