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NEVER MIND --- the same moderator who suggested I post here has solved the problem by deleting my copy-paste job and undeleting the answer we wanted undeleted. [or maybe it got undeleted by some other mechanism]

This concerns Can a positive binary quadratic form represent 14 consecutive numbers?

Some years ago, an answer was posted. It received 14 upvotes, and no downvotes. A couple of years later, that answer was deleted by its author. I used copy-paste to put up a "new" answer, whose content was just that of the old answer, and I made it community wiki.

It has been suggested that it would have been better to go to meta to request undeletion of the old answer --- only those with 20K+ can vote to undelete. So, here I am.

If/when the old answer is undeleted, I'll delete my copy-paste job.

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  • $\begingroup$ Yes, I fixed it myself, but this type of meta request is the better way to get this done. $\endgroup$ – François G. Dorais Aug 21 '13 at 13:20
  • $\begingroup$ @François, then why didn't you let me do it this way? $\endgroup$ – Gerry Myerson Aug 21 '13 at 13:28
  • $\begingroup$ Most users are not as responsive as you are! $\endgroup$ – François G. Dorais Aug 21 '13 at 14:10
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    $\begingroup$ As I mentioned before, I believe undeleting the other answers deleted by the same user would be a benefit to the community, and the moderators could just do it without waiting for 10K+ people to chance upon them and start a request. $\endgroup$ – Andrés E. Caicedo Aug 21 '13 at 14:31
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    $\begingroup$ @Andres: You can make a request for that too. The idea is that this kind of action needs to be appropriately documented. $\endgroup$ – François G. Dorais Aug 21 '13 at 15:01
  • $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais You mean: Even though you are already aware of it (and my comments on the matter can be seen as a formal request), you still need that I write a new thread for it, and have quid comment on it, and all that? $\endgroup$ – Andrés E. Caicedo Aug 21 '13 at 15:06
  • $\begingroup$ @AndresCaicedo I think I recently commented on this subject already. However, if you like I certainly can repeat and expand on it (the situation slightlly changed, but I hope only temporarily). I am all flattered you consider my input that significant. :-) $\endgroup$ – user9072 Aug 21 '13 at 17:30
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    $\begingroup$ @Andres: Yes, the goal is to have clear and visible community support for such a drastic action. $\endgroup$ – François G. Dorais Aug 21 '13 at 19:31
  • $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais, my sense at the time, which caught me by surprise, was that FJ was deleting answers that had not been accepted. At this point I cannot really document that impression. However, my guess is that the whole thing will be alright with FJ, given that I have now accepted the answer, only three years late. $\endgroup$ – Will Jagy Aug 21 '13 at 19:53
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    $\begingroup$ @FrançoisG.Dorais Done. $\endgroup$ – Andrés E. Caicedo Aug 21 '13 at 19:59
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$\begingroup$

Thanks for looking into this, Gerry. My understanding at the time, August 2012, was that FJ was deleting unaccepted answers. The original was in 2010 and an early effort on my part, plus it was mostly a correction of a question by someone else that was not done carefully.

The relevant bit was, in 2010, it did not occur to me to accept the answer, and then i forgot about it. My feeling now is that an answer that says here's why it's probably true and probably unprovable is something worth accepting. So I've done that, just now.

See also

http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/discussion/1622/bounty-madness/#Item_10

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  • $\begingroup$ Ordinarily, I would flag this as "Not an answer", but as it occurs to me that I didn't actually ask a question.... So I'll accept your non-answer to my non-question, and we should all be happy. $\endgroup$ – Gerry Myerson Aug 22 '13 at 0:32
  • $\begingroup$ @Gerry, there is an early point in the movie "Red" where Bruce Willis says to Mary Louise Parker "I try not to judge." I think this is wisdom. imdb.com/title/tt1245526 $\endgroup$ – Will Jagy Aug 22 '13 at 2:46

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