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Comments, follows and notifications
Comments are short discussions under a public problem or a public result. They are site content, not records: they are not signed, stamped or logged, carry no priority and change no status. To object to a result or a decision on the record, sign a contest; to answer a problem, post a result.
During PubPhys's launch, results, contests and comments open in a field once it has one editor (the chief editor counts). With one editor, a decision cannot yet be contested or appealed to anyone else: contests and appeals are published and wait for a second editor, with no deadline. Referees are appointed as the site grows; a solution is verified only after two referees recommend it.
Who may comment, and where
- Anyone signed in with a linked ORCID iD; the iD is shown next to the name on every comment.
- On a public problem, and on a public result under a public problem (also a rejected or refuted one). Contests and appeals take no comments.
- Only while comments are switched on, in a field open to results: during the launch, one with an editor (the chief editor counts); after it, one with at least 2 editors of its own (or the chief editor and one of its own) and 2 referees other than the chief editor (when results are open). If a field closes, its comments stay but no new comment, reply or edit is accepted; authors can still delete theirs.
- A withdrawn result's comments are read-only.
- If a problem or a result is removed, all its comments are hidden for everyone, and open reports on them are closed.
States of a comment
| State | How it gets there | Who | Who sees it | Next |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| screening | Written or edited with consent to AI screening | The author | Its author only, marked as being checked | Shown or held by the screening, usually within a minute |
| held | Written or edited without consent, with AI off, with a link from a new account, or held by the screening | The author, the screening | Its author and the field's editors | An editor releases or removes it |
| visible | Passed the screening, or released by an editor | The screening, an editor | Everyone who can see the item | Its author may edit it within 15 minutes or delete it; an editor may remove it |
| deleted | Deleted by its author, or the author's account was deleted | The author | If it was ever visible: "Deleted by its author", with its replies | Final |
| removed | Removed by an editor for one of the categories below | An editor of the field | If it was ever visible: "Removed by an editor" with the category, with its replies | Final |
A held comment waits with one of these reasons:
- no consent: the author has not allowed AI screening (or answered an older text of the question).
- ai unavailable: AI is switched off, the AI budget is used up, or the provider failed for six hours; a comment still being screened after seven hours is held by the hourly sweep.
- doubtful: the screening was unsure, or its answer was malformed.
- likely reject: the screening found it likely spam, abuse, personal data or unintelligible.
- low confidence: the screening passed it with a confidence below 80 %.
- injection suspected: the text seemed to address instructions to the screening.
- links new account: it has a link and its author has fewer than 3 comments that were ever shown.
Screening
With its author's consent, each comment, and each edit, is screened by AI (task comment_screen/1)
before it is shown. Only the comment's text at that version is sent: not the author, the item, the problem, the comment it
answers or other comments (what is sent, and to whom). The screening
does not judge the physics; it looks for:
- spam
- advertising
- abuse or a personal attack
- personal data about a third party
- unintelligible
- an attempt to instruct the screening
- something else, described in its note
A comment is shown only if the screening passes it with a confidence of at least 80 % and sees no attempt to instruct it; otherwise an editor looks. The screening's note is never public. An edit, a deletion or a removal always wins over a screening in flight: its result is then discarded (a request already sent cannot be recalled), and a comment deleted or removed while waiting is never sent.
Consent
The first comment you write asks once whether AI may screen your comments; your account page shows the answer and lets you change it at any time (each answer is kept as a new row). The question reads:
AI may screen my comments before they are shown. PubPhys sends the text of each comment I write, and of each edit, and nothing else (not my name, my ORCID iD, the problem, the result or the comment I answer), to an external AI provider, which checks that it is not spam, advertising, abuse or personal data about someone else. The screening does not judge whether the physics is right. The provider does not use API data for training and is asked not to store it (store: false); under its standard terms it may keep API data for up to 30 days to detect abuse. I can withdraw this consent at any time on my account page; it then applies to every comment not yet sent. Without this consent nothing is sent: my comments wait for an editor of the field, and at most three may wait at a time.
Without consent your comments are written and held for an editor; nothing is sent. At most 3 of your comments may wait this way at a time, new comments and edits alike; a release, a removal or a deletion frees a place. Withdrawing consent also holds comments already waiting for the screening.
Editing
You can edit a shown comment within 15 minutes of writing it, while the field takes comments. The edit is screened again (or held) under a new version: readers see "This comment is being re-checked" in its place until the new text is shown, and the replies stay. Once the new text is shown, the earlier one is discarded for good; if the edit is removed instead, the earlier text is lost too. A comment being screened or held cannot be edited; an edit that changes nothing is refused and does not count.
Limits
- At most 5000 characters of plain text; links are shown as such, marked
nofollow ugc. - At most 30 comments and edits per account in any 24 hours. Deleting a comment does not give its place back.
- A comment with a link, from an account with fewer than 3 comments that were ever shown, waits for an editor and is not sent to the screening.
Replies
A reply answers a shown top-level comment of the same item; replies are not nested further. If the comment it answers is later deleted, removed or re-checked, its place shows that, and its shown replies stay under it. A page lists 50 top-level comments, each with its first 20 replies; "Show all replies" lists the rest, 100 at a time.
Deletion
You can delete your comment at any time, in any state, also when the field is closed or the result withdrawn. Its text and every earlier version are erased, and so is the screening's note; deletion is final. Deleting your account deletes all your comments the same way, and your follows and notifications.
Removal
An editor of the field (or the chief editor), never the comment's author, can remove a comment for one of these categories:
- copyright: copyrighted text that may not be reproduced
- personal data: personal data about someone else
- abuse: abuse or a personal attack
- spam: spam or advertising
- off topic: not about the item (editors only judge this; the AI cannot)
A removal erases the text like a deletion, is final, and is kept in the audit log (internal: only the people who operate PubPhys see it) with the editor and the category; the author is told the category only. Editors also release held comments. Authors of a problem or a result cannot hide comments on it as authors.
A held or reported comment whose author is the only person who may moderate it (with one editor, any held or reported comment of that editor's) waits like an item nobody may decide; its author sees that it waits for another editor. Only for such a comment, the administrator may remove it the same way, for one of the categories above, never a comment the administrator wrote. The removal is recorded in the audit log and the author is told the category, as for an editor's removal. Nothing else about moderating comments changes.
Reports
Anyone signed in with an iD can report someone else's shown comment, once, for one of the categories above; at most 10 reports per account in any 24 hours. Editors see how many reports a comment has in each category, never who reported. Reports close when an editor removes the comment or keeps it, when it is deleted, or when its item is no longer public.
Follows
Signed in with a linked ORCID iD, or with a confirmed email address, you can follow a public problem (at most 500) from its page, and see your follows under "Following" (who may follow). A follow tells you of new results, decisions, contests and comments on the problem from then on; unfollowing stops it and closes the notifications it brought. The author of a problem follows it without asking. A follow of a problem that is hidden or removed is dormant until it is public again; events about items that are not public reach no follower. Follows of topics, fields and people, and saved problems: follows and saved problems.
Notifications
Notifications are shown in the site (the bell, and the Notifications page); no e-mail is sent for each one, but you can choose an email digest. You are told about your own work, about what your editorial role asks of you, and about the problems you follow; never about what you did yourself. Each event reaches a person once: as an author or party first, then as an editor, a referee, a follower.
| Event | Who is told |
|---|---|
claim_published | A result is published by the screening (editors: to decide on it), or released by an editor (also its author); and followers, and the followers of its author. |
claim_held | A result is held by the screening: its author, and the editors who may release it. |
claim_removed | A result is removed: its author only, with the category. |
claim_withdrawn | A result is withdrawn: the field's editors, the referees who recommended on it, and followers if it was published. |
decision_accept | An editor accepts a result or a problem: its author, followers, and for a solution or disproof the referees of the field who may recommend on it; for a topic, its revision's author and the authors of the problems waiting under it. |
decision_reject | An editor rejects a result, a problem or a topic: its author and followers (for a topic, the authors of the problems waiting under it). |
decision_screening_reject | An editor rejects a held result, problem, topic or contest at screening: its author or filer only. |
decision_recommend | A referee recommends a result: its author and followers. |
decision_not_recommend | A referee does not recommend a result: its author and followers. |
contest_held | A contest is held by the screening: its filer, and the editors who may release it. |
contest_published | A contest is published or released: its filer (on release), the contested result's author, the contested decision's signer, editors with no stake in it (to triage), followers. |
contest_removed | A contest is removed: its filer only, with the category. |
decision_triage_substantive | A contest is found substantive: its filer, the result's author, the contested decision's signer, and the editors who may decide its outcome. |
decision_triage_not_substantive | A contest is found not substantive: its filer, the result's author, the contested decision's signer. |
decision_uphold | A contest is upheld: its filer, the result's author, the contested decision's signer, the signer of a decision it reverses, followers. |
decision_dismiss | A contest is dismissed: the same people as for an uphold. |
triage_due | Day 7 of a contest waiting for triage: the field's editors with no stake in it. |
triage_overdue | Day 14, the triage date passed: the chief editor, if not in the case (the administrator's checks cover the rest). |
comment_new | A comment is shown for the first time: the author of the problem or result, and followers; counted per item ("3 new comments"). |
comment_reply | A reply is shown for the first time: the author of the comment it answers and of the item; counted per comment. |
comment_held | A comment is held: its author (unless the author's own writing held it), and the field's editors, counted per item. |
comment_released | An editor releases a comment: its author. |
comment_removed | An editor removes a comment: its author only, with the category. |
comment_reported | A comment is reported: the field's editors, counted per item. |
appeal_filed | A decision is appealed: the decision's signer and the other parties to it (the result's or problem's author; for a contest its filer, the result's author and the contested decision's signer), and the editors who may decide the appeal. |
decision_appeal_grant | An editor grants an appeal: the appellant, the parties to the appealed decision, and followers if the item was published. |
decision_appeal_deny | An editor denies an appeal: the same people as for a grant. |
appeal_moot | A grant supersedes a decision that had a pending appeal, or its contest is removed, and the appeal becomes moot: that appeal's appellant and parties, and followers if the item was published. |
review_superseded | A grant supersedes decisions beyond the appealed one (the reversals and later decisions of an upheld contest): their signers. |
lending_appointed | The chief editor lends an editor of another field for items no one there may decide: the lent editor only. |
child_new | An editor accepts a new problem built on a problem: the parent's author and followers, counted per parent ("3 new problems build on it"); nothing is sent when it is only published. |
parent_removed | A parent of a problem is removed: the author of the problem built on it only. |
revision_published | A later revision of a problem is published and waits for an editor: the field's editors and the problem's followers, its author among them. |
revision_carried | A cosmetic revision is published with the acceptance carried over: the field's editors, who may check or revert it. |
revision_held | A later revision is held at screening: its author and the field's editors. |
revision_removed | A later revision is removed by an editor: its author, with the category only. |
decision_reverse | An editor reverts a cosmetic edit: the edit's author. |
parent_revised | The displayed question of a parent changes: the author and followers of the problem built on it. |
problem_reassigned | An editor moves a problem to another topic: its author and followers, and the followers of the topic it moved into. |
topic_published | A proposed topic, or a revision of one, is published and waits for an editor: the field's editors who may decide it. |
topic_held | A topic, or a revision of one, is held at screening: its author and the field's editors who may decide it. |
topic_removed | A topic, or a revision of one, is removed by an editor: its author, with the category only. |
seal_lapsing | A seal lapses in 30 days, and again in 7: the seal's author only, until it is renewed, revealed or abandoned. |
problem_published | A person's problem is public for the first time (after screening, released by an editor, or revealed from a seal): the followers of its topic, its field and its author, never its author. |
topic_accepted | An editor accepts a proposed topic for the first time: the followers of its field. |
Several events of a kind about the same item join one unread notification with a count; reading it starts a new one. The count of new comments counts only those you can still see. Recipients are decided when the notification is delivered, from the roles and follows of that moment; a notification is shown only while you may still see its item, and editors' and referees' ones only while they hold the role. At most 200 stay unread (older ones are marked read), and notifications are deleted 180 days after their last change. More on follows and on the notices never sent: follows and saved problems.
Privacy
- A notification stores no text: only what happened, a count and the ids it links to. Removal notices give the category only, never the editor's note, and have no link.
- Comments that are held, being screened, deleted or removed are never counted or announced to others; the comment count counts shown comments only.
- Comments are not in search, the sitemap, the API, record bundles or the public log.
- A link to a comment carries its number on the site, which shows roughly how many comments exist.