L'hypocrisie d'arXiv

Trop c'est trop, et quand c'est trop c'est Tropico.

Tropicooooo !!

Au-delà de cette blague lamentable se trouve un vrai problème, un sérieux problème : l'hypocrisie de l'éditeur arXiv.

Commençons avec un fait :

"The arXiv.org e-print archive is fully automated.

It processes over 200 new submissions per day.

This is only possible if YOU as author or submitter take responsibility:always carefully check and verify your submissions, pay close attention to diagnostic messages sent to you, and take corrective action if necessary.

There is no secretarial staff to manually correct mistakes, fix typos, amend layout, or perform other remedial tasks. In particular, there is no one to guide submitters step-by-step through simple submission procedures explained at length in the help texts, nor are there resources to assist with generic problems of word processing software or packaging of submissions. Use of the e-print archive is free of charge, and this is feasible with a skeletal staff here only insofar as users take full responsibility for their submissions.

Staff time here is dedicated to improving the software and adding features, and tuning the server and mirror network, rather than assisting individual users with minor problems that can be solved entirely at the user end. It is frequently more efficient to consult a colleague first before sending email to the server admins, so please only email questions which are

- not explained in the online help

- cannot be solved with a little trial and error

- remain mysterious even after consulting with a computer savvy colleague

Note that on the day of submission, before the 16:00 US Eastern time (EDT/EST) deadline, you can replace as often as necessary to debug layout problems interactively and to make editorial changes. There is no penalty for multiple same day replacements and no new version number as long as the replacements arrive here before the above daily deadline.

If despite your best efforts you cannot resolve problems with your submission, send a concise description of the problem to www-admin@arXiv.org, always remembering to mention the archive/papernum or temporary identifier, and someone here will reply, typically (but not always) within 1 working day.

DO NOT under any circumstances send your submission or any unsolicited file attachments to www-admin. This is a group address only for communicating e-print server related problems and suggestions. Regular submission attempts are cached with a few day latency and we need only the identifier you've received in order to inspect your attempted or successful submission.

Always contact www-admin@arXiv.org if you think you have found a genuine bug which can be reliably reproduced, and you have verified that your web browser and display software is up to date. If a page appears not to have been updated properly, make sure you are not looking at a page cached by your browser or some misconfigured intermediate proxy. (Many browsers require a SHIFT-reload to properly reload a locally cached page.)

Thank you for your cooperation.".

J'ai reçu ceci dans ma boite mail lors de mon inscription à arXiv.

"The arXiv.org e-print archive is fully automated.", pourtant, lors du processus de publication, on me dit "You must get an endorsement from another user to submit an article to category math.GM (General Mathematics).".

C'est contradictoire. À ce que je sache, acquérir l'aval d'un autre être humain n'est pas quelque chose d'automatique. Nous ne sommes pas des robots.

Dans le mail, j'ai lu "Use of the e-print archive is free of charge". Je me suis donc dit qu'il y aurait simplement un bouton Parcourir et un autre pour valider, c'est ça la free attitude.

Dans le processus de soumission : "To endorse another user to submit to the math.GM (General Mathematics) subject class, an arXiv submitter must have submitted 2 papers to math.GM earlier than three months ago and less than five years ago.".

Un coup on dirait qu'il n'y a pas de comité de lecture, un coup on dirait qu'il y en a un ! Il faudrait savoir, bordel !

Je suis venu à arXiv avec l'idée de fuir les inutiles obstacles à la diffusion du savoir que posent les revues commerciales, et je me retrouve avec un truc qui pose aussi des obstacles, et qui a le culot de prétendre m'aider pour corriger le putain d'obstacle qu'ils viennent de me mettre !

Et la liberté de recherche, dans tout ça ?

Je suis encore jeune. Mais je me fais une idée de ce que ça vaut.

Je dirais gentiment à ces messieurs condescendants de bien aller mourir, il y a un truc qui s'appelle la compétition, et au vu de ce que j'ai constaté, l'équipe d'arXiv n'est pas au top.