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This is now the second time at Matter Modeling SE, where we have received this exact same question (both times by an "unregistered user"):

enter image description here

I made the mistake of engaging with it the first time, asking for more details in the comments, for example, and based on the comments it became clear that the user was not truly looking for papers on the topic.

The question was then deleted, but just a few months later, we've got the same question again, this time by another "unregistered user". Unfortunately, one of our newer users who didn't see it the first time, is seriously asking the user for more details (like I did last time).

Has Physics.SE got this exact same question come up too? Because we've now had it twice, and I don't see what the user's goal is with this (it's not like there's a link to an insecure website that steals all my computer's information, it's just a question which wastes people's time).

Edit: A similar question was asked 2 months earlier:

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ "I don't see what the user's goal is with this...it's just a question which wastes people's time" - Welcome to the internet. $\endgroup$
    – ACuriousMind Mod
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 17:24
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    $\begingroup$ But, no, I haven’t seen that question here. If it did show up it was nuked quickly. $\endgroup$
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 17:45
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    $\begingroup$ It seems well suited for Quora. $\endgroup$
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 18:52
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    $\begingroup$ We get worse questions every day. Downvote, flag, and move on. $\endgroup$
    – knzhou
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 21:51
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    $\begingroup$ No, we get serious erection questions $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 22:47
  • $\begingroup$ @BioPhysicist that's a question by a real person with 12k rep on Stack Overflow though! $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Commented Oct 16, 2020 at 22:51
  • $\begingroup$ Right. I said it was serious. $\endgroup$
    – BioPhysicist
    Commented Oct 17, 2020 at 1:27
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    $\begingroup$ I am not 100% sure that it is trolling. I am also not 100% sure that it has to do anything to the PSE. But, because I am not sure, I click "skip". $\endgroup$
    – peterh
    Commented Oct 17, 2020 at 13:23

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I'm promoting this comment by knzhou to an answer:

We get worse questions every day. Downvote, flag, and move on.

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  • $\begingroup$ Is it even true? What worse questions were asked today, for example? The reason I asked my questions was also not because of the question being "worse" than anything, it's that the same question came twice, and by unregistered users both times. MMSE is such a small and brand new site, so I wondered how they even knew we existed, and wanted to see if this had happened on other sites too. Now that people seem to be suggesting that it never happened at Physics.SE, I'm scared that we are being "targeted" by someone who doesn't like our site or something. $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Commented Oct 17, 2020 at 17:26
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, not literally every day. You can put "is:question closed:yes" in the search box if you really want to look in our garbage — there's a sexist howler from a couple of days ago that hasn't been roomba'd yet. But I'm not going to dignify our worst contributions by linking and enumerating them. The goal of people who write these trolling questions is to steal your attention, so that you waste it on them. Don't let them control what you think. If you're concerned about targeting, the flag mechanism activates the moderators' toolkit, including ways we can coordinate across multiple sites. $\endgroup$
    – rob Mod
    Commented Oct 17, 2020 at 17:56

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