[seqfan] Re: On editors-authors discussions

[franktaw at netscape.net]

The editors are not there only to help authors. It is also part of the 
editors' responsibility to decide whether a sequence belongs in the 
OEIS at all. An editor raising this question is just doing his job.

One thing many contributors don't seem to realize is that sequences in 
the database will be accessed by people who are not familiar with the 
context in which it arose. This means that any interesting aspects of 
the sequence need to be identified in the sequence itself. This can be 
directly, or by a reference to another sequence, a web page, or a 
mathematical or scientific paper.

In other words, when an editor asks "Why is this interesting?", this is 
not an invitation to reply via a message, but to add something to the 
sequence to answer the question.

On the other hand, I think editors do sometimes fall into the trap of 
thinking "I don't understand this, so it's nonsense." Sometimes it is 
nonsense, but sometimes it's just poorly written. It is important to 
figure out which.

Franklin T. Adams-Watters

-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Shevelev <shevelev at bgu.ac.il>

I am sure that the editor-author discussion should have a constructive
character, when an editor really helps to the author. In my opinion, a
 destructive discussion begins from phrases " it should be 
260 characters", "it
is similar to a project which is not ready for OEIS", "your sequence 
has too
many zeros," "is, really, your sequence for OEIS?", etc. Such a "help" 
is
extremely unpleasant for the author. By the way, we know that the 
author should
submit at least 3-4 terms (he is not always a programmer), that the 
number of
zeros at the beginning of a sequence does not indicate whether it is
interesting, that it is very nice if a scientific project is 
accompanied by the
sending of well defined new sequences to OEIS, etc. It is very 
pleasant, when
the submitted sequence is extended by the editor, when he discusses 
about the
improvements of  the title, definition, comment or formula. Our joint 
work is
very important for the further development of OEIS.


Best regards,
Vladimir


 Shevelev Vladimir‎

_______________________________________________

Seqfan Mailing list - http://list.seqfan.eu/