As far as of my knowledge I have seen replies which are notified as having been "deleted". Since the names of the authors of such replies aren't mentioned any more one can guess that these Authors either have quitted their participation in ResGate or have been removed "silently" (as we saw that in earlier times) by ResGate. I have not come across that have been deleted with their whole reply-thread....   but if it turned out that ResearchGate really did such then I agree with Prof. Ruiz Espejo and others,  that an explanation to the participants in the / added to the Question (which IMHO naturally should be publicly accessible further on) ["Official ResearchGate-Comment"] would be better than direct and - noteworthy "silent/tacit" elimination of a question. At the same time, the author of a ResGate-question should be informed about the/an intended ResearchGate action and there should be time and space allowed for the possibility to create an author's comment or to eventually implement necessary corrections to a question / answer.

No. I have never witnessed that...

I have received a message of Simone Brizzi of RG Q&A. He explains me that it could be broken one of the rules of RG, do not have any answer, be duplicated the question in the foro, etc.

No, 

I think that an explanation to the participants in the Question and to have the possibility of doing necessary corrections would be better than direct elimination of a Question.

Yes, I have observed some changes in August, all of them are restrictions to my possibilities of actuation from my profile. I have consulted the reasons and if is it possible to recuperate the lost functions in RG. I wait the response since a week approximately. One of them has been recuperated.

I never noticed in my case, but some questions of other RG members have been deleted. Actually I added my answers to the questions, but next time didn't find the question.

Thank you for sharing.

Yes, I had a similar experience, with regard to the removal of a question of mine, in June 2016.

The explanation was 'Your post has been deleted either because it didn't follow our general guidelines or because it was not correctly formatted. For detailed information on our editing and deleting policy, and to find out how best to use Q&A, take a look at our Q&A Guidelines.'

I agree with Prof. Ruiz Espejo that 'an explanation to the participants in the Question and to have the possibility of doing necessary corrections would be better than direct elimination of a Question.'

Regards

Not so far in my case. However, I have noticed abrupt disappearance of questions and some answers as well, posted by fellow RG members. Can RG support delete or edit our Q&As?

Though I never had such an experience, I don't approve of such behavior. Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion. However, it has to be done with  a sense of decorum.

There was a time my answer to a question was modified, I didn't care to ask why because I quickly envisage the problem. Names were mentioned and this could be offensive to those concerned. 

Notwithstanding, the attention of those concerned can be drawn to the particular question or comment to enable them to make the necessary adjustment. if they insist, RG can go ahead to modify it. If those concerned are not satisfied with the modification by RG, they can on their own eliminate it.

Mariano, I never had such an experience.

If this is computer error, this should be corrected. If the question is very unpolite, perhaps they can do that. But in other cases I think that such an intervention violates our freedom of thinking and talking.

As far as of my knowledge I have seen replies which are notified as having been "deleted". Since the names of the authors of such replies aren't mentioned any more one can guess that these Authors either have quitted their participation in ResGate or have been removed "silently" (as we saw that in earlier times) by ResGate. I have not come across that have been deleted with their whole reply-thread....   but if it turned out that ResearchGate really did such then I agree with Prof. Ruiz Espejo and others,  that an explanation to the participants in the / added to the Question (which IMHO naturally should be publicly accessible further on) ["Official ResearchGate-Comment"] would be better than direct and - noteworthy "silent/tacit" elimination of a question. At the same time, the author of a ResGate-question should be informed about the/an intended ResearchGate action and there should be time and space allowed for the possibility to create an author's comment or to eventually implement necessary corrections to a question / answer.

Yes, RG has deleted questions that are deemed to be non-research questions.  This is why in my early days, some of my questions were deleted.  But RG gave a warning that if any of us asked such questions it would be deleted.  Some members were also removed for double posting questions or answers.  I can accept all that, and learn from that.  But I could not understand why a question on INTERNET AND TIM BERNERS LEE, that was posted by Ljubomir Jacic was deleted.

But again, on RG, we are the guests, and the host has the right to do what they think right.

"Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA FBCS, also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web."

Everyone of us need to be sensible enough to ask questions which are appropriate and relevant to their search domains. 

Hi, I agree with the Employer Mr. Krishnan that anyone can ask questions that face on to solve your problem .

Has RG deleted your Questions or limited functions without consulting you?

I don't have the above experience yet but I do experience some of my answers to other RG members' questions had been deleted.  However, i managed to search from Internet pointing me to the RG link but when I click open - I can't find my answer for the particular question raised by RG member.  Not sure is there any RG member encountered the similar experience? 

Yes dear @Mariano, my questions were deleted couple of times. Dear @Miranda has already mentioned one case. Some deleted questions I have succedeed to return back to Questions  after serious discussions with RG officials. 

Researchgate should manage questions better in terms of duplication. They should not allow heavy plagiarism in both questions and answers.

They have some kind of support which is not applied always as it should be.

https://explore.researchgate.net/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=951358

Thank you for sharing this question.

" Has RG deleted your Questions or limited functions without consulting you? "

No, I didn't have the mentioned experience yet. But as Sofia Cividini mentioned, sometime the keywords I had used for my questions had been changed. 

Best regards, Mehdi

Dear Mariano

Yes I have seen two years ago, how a researcher was eliminated from RG. He was an italian: Fausto Galleto, who did several good comentaries in Statistics, Applied Matemathics, Experimental Design, Industrial Engineering. etc. I have noticed however that Fausto put in his answers some emphasis in advertising his work (Which is forbidden by RG) and that he was a little vehement in the form how he defended his opinions.

However I noticed too that he was ready to acknowledge an error when it was well shown to him. I think that the forum has the right to delete a participant that do not respect it, or the others colleagues, but that they were wrong in the specific case of this colleague whom I miss.

I have seen this mentioned, but to my knowledge, have not experienced this myself. I say "to my knowledge," because I do not follow up on every question and answer. It is POSSIBLE that some of my answers have been deleted, in other words.

There are bound to be restrictions on what people can ask and on how they answer. I'm sure that RG doesn't want to devolve into a site in which insults are traded with impunity, for example. I suppose the pragmatic approach, in an academic forum such as this, is to behave as one would in non-virtual academia. You may push the boundaries, but just so much.

Oh, and exactly as Arno says, I too have not been receiving e-mail notifications from RG, for some time. That's fine with me, although it makes it difficult to know what might be going on behind the scenes.

I have not mentioned such activity by RG

Thank you for sharing the question and I think must be consult  you and give the reason for the deleting? 

regards

why is my RG score decreasing every week despite my contributions ? This constitutes another similar controversy concerning the activities and mode of operation of Research gate.

 A question of mine was deleted by Research Gate: I got the following message:

Rudolf, your question has been deleted by an editor:

What is the reason for this pain?

A 12 year old child has a strong pain at the tooth 35, which had yet erupted within the last year. The tooth has neither caries nor a filling. The pain can be called pulpitis-like, the percussion is also positive. There is no occlusal interference, she does not remember any trauma. What would be your therapeutical approach?

Topics: Percussion, Eruptions, Occlusion, Trauma, Pain, Dentistry, Pediatric Dentistry, Endodontics, Non Surgical Endodontics

Your post has been deleted either because it didn't follow our general guidelines or because it was not correctly formatted. For detailed information on our editing and deleting policy, and to find out how best to use Q&A, take a look at our Q&A Guidelines.

I posted the question quite different once more and it worked, even if I do not know really, what I did wrong!

Rudolf Ritt

 Dear Mariano:

So far my questions are still there. I assume that RG is adjusting or polishing its Q & A section.I cannot say if some of my answers have disappeared, since I don't remember how many I had !

It happened with me.

How do you reach RG officials to discuss when your question was deleted?

I have never experienced such before and if such happens I think it is unfair. You can actually mail them and I am sure they will respond 

Dear all, 

Thank you very much for sharing and discussing this topic. 

I had a similar experience. My question was deleted last month. I contacted the RG to clarify this problem, and then I got the following reply:

Thanks for getting in touch. Questions may be deleted if they belong to one of the following categories: Advertisements; General knowledge questions that can be quickly answered using a search engine; Broad, vague, or unscientific (e.g. personal stories); Job applications; Duplicates of previous questions; Requests for publications; Private messages. Please note that we are unable to investigate why an individual question was deleted. 

To make sure that your questions remain visible and helpful to other researchers, please ensure that they are specific, concise, and of a scientific nature.  

Actually, I don’t think my question belongs to one of the categories above.

In my opinion, it will be better if the RG needs to consult the participants to correct their questions than removes the questions without discussion. I hope this issue will be improved next time. 

Best regards,

Pham

Thank you Sofia. As I remember I tried to question the current concept of complete equality between the two sexes and if is it useful or harmful to our societies. Some flagged me with insults and I got a letter from RG which was very cruel and threatening. A friend of me advised to be very careful if I like to keep living on RG. I wanted to live to raise my points about hydrocephalus and stopped it.

My main reason of presence on RG is hydrocephalus, but I use my time away from it when I got no responses in my field.

What hurts inside me is that RG is allowing to discuss presence or absence of God and not allowing to touch relations between the two sexes which has become worst at our time. Just see family failures which are affecting our societies. We are going down a steep slope and it is allowed to discuss God's presence and not allowed to discuss security and good life for our children in healthy families.

Thank you too much for your note as well as for the question you raised about scientists.

My answer is no, Dear Mariano. But if somebody including RG Administration asked me to remove any one of my questions or answers, I would do it immediately, with pleasure, if I could, naturally.

In my opinion, RG Administration should consider removing Marwan question below; because it is an absurd and the Excellency of Marwan participations, criticism, equilibrium and courage are missing in some RG discussions.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_about_time_to_bid_an_adieu_dear_RGers

I know others that have been removed.

Researchgate had deleted one of my Questions, as I remember, long time ago. We could not investigate why an individual question was deleted. . For the last 3 years, there was no deletion.

I have not experienced any of my posts or questions deleted by RG. My interest is purely research-based.

I have no such experience.

Editing or deletion of any question or answer at the level of RG support should always be done in due consultation with RG member concerned stating valid reasons.Further RG support should uncover the so far hidden matrix behind RG score calculation as several RG members have expressed their concern over apparently flawed score calculation system. It would be better if RG administration could provide appropriately on profile page a weekly statement of activities vis-a-vis RG score to every member.   

I think the fact that any post has to be deleted "without considering talking to the person that posted it is unfair".  We are all here because we have a scientific base to be here, therefore RG owes the people "they vet" to be on this sight, a call to ascertain the true intent of the question.

If we are not all professionals here then I am on the wrong web site.

George..   

Anonymous actuations to restringe possibilities to some researchers do not seem a good procedure. If moreover they have not got explanations to anyone, with more reasons. They give more possibilities to some participants over others, what is a clear injustice with these ones and gives more opportunities and facilities to those ones. An abuse.

Dear all

One month ago, I also have suffered the experience that a question with whole reply was deleted.

My question is “do you support anonymous downloading your publications on RG?” in the question, I explained the reason I asked the question is because most my publications were downloaded by anonymous RG members. I want to share the view point on the problem with the researchers on RG.

I don’t remember all replies, but one of RG administrators’ answer kept in my mind .the main meaning is for protecting downloader personal information and research RG has to have kept and will still keep anonymous downloading my publications.

My answer was that I welcome and encourage any downloading, what trouble I can make? But the following day I found my question was deleted without any warning.

Dear @Brenda and all, I do reach RG officials by mail to discuss the question deletion. The e-mail address is [email protected]. 

Crazy editorial control at ResearchGate! What an experience!

"I decided to ask a research philosophy question that was burning inside.

“Lead or follow – you choose!”

A very open ended question which to me gets at the core of science, do you try to be innovative and lead a field by doing things differently, or do you tag along on someone else’s coat tails and just go with the flow. I do not know why I was thinking about this but hey its Friday and I am still thinking so that is a plus.

I logged out wondering if anyone would respond.. then I get an email that said “your question was deleted by an editor”..."

http://www.collabchem.com/2013/07/12/crazy-editorial-control-at-researchgate/

Never

In fact, no

RG administration should edit or delete any questions or answers in due consultation with the concerned RG members, if such Q or A doesn't suit their policy. However, the reason for editing or deleting should be explained so that others could also understand the viewpoint and policy of RG administration about the Q/A forum.

Do you have limited your possible endorsements to other researchers? Yes, I do. And you?

I think, all is perfect on RG.Nobody has a right to delete Q/A, besides the author.You may either share your experience, endorse, and upvote or keep silence.The greatest social net, where all is voluntary.

Some function has returned (for example, the way to share a Question) but other not (for example, the limitation up to three to endorse other researchers).

Dear @Mariano, it is possible to endorse the researcher with more than three skills. See how I have endorsed you. Regards.

Yes, Prof. Ljubomir is right, it is possible to endorse a researcher/RG Member for multiple (> 3) skills. He/She can be also be recommended for further skills based on his/her contributions even not mentioned in his/her profile. However, inclusion of such recommended skills in the profile is subject to the approval of concerned RG member.   

Yes, Ljubomir, I told about the usual possibilities between the skills that one finds in the section Info of a researcher. Since several months, I can endorse the first three skills (the more endorsed) only at this moment. It is possible to change the first three endorsed skills of a researcher but usually they change few.

Of course, new skills is other possibility if the researcher accepts these ones.

You are right, dear Ljubomir, it is possible to endorse other skills as you explain. Thank you very much.

Yes, it is more complicated to endorse to a researcher of a skill than several months before. The information of the number of endorsed skills is hidden now, and the endorsements are not of a direct visual way but of a much more labourious way now.

It is good approach to endorsements now, I like it. Massive endorsements require more search and more work, which is good. Few more mouse clicks are not the problem dear @Mariano.

Dear @Mariano, as I was inspired by deletion of my question for no reason, I have written the following on my Overview page (see about field): 

Albert Einstein said:“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” Therefore, I see no reason in asking or answering questions that will be revised in a way that gives no arguments for censoring.We,as scientists,should be the defenders of truth and the freedom of expressing one’s thoughts If something should stand in our way,we are to find ways to peacefully remove the obstacles.But, if obstacles are irremovable,the smart thing to do would be to let the enemies of freedom be.

Dear Ljubomir,

It is easy to say what you say when you have recolected a big number of endorsements already. But when one has known the preceeding system it does not seem the same treat compared with the actual. Old researchers in RG had more facilities than new researchers in RG.

I think that a good change in RG is an improvement in facilities to researchers.

No, it has not taken place in my case any time.

Dear @Mariano, you have stated : " 

It is easy to say what you say when you have recolected a big number of endorsements already. But when one has known the preceeding system it does not seem the same treat compared with the actual. Old researchers in RG had more facilities than new researchers in RG."

Let me bring some more facts. For example, the number of followers directly influences the number of endorsements. There are people who are not so long in RG community, but they have respectful number of endorsements thanking to large number of followers. 

Of course, I do agree that older RG members should get more endorsements than the new one, but there are many exceptions. 

You are right Dr Jacic. In our younger days the digital technology was not there, Peole use to ask for reprint of ourpapers by podt vard/letter and we used to oblige. We had a diffivult time.Some times some people did not send,Moreover translation of papers other than English was great problem We used to spend money for getting them translated, During our avtive career so many people requested for oyr reprints and many think we are are dead and gone, Iam 77+ and and I am sure there are many of of my age who under went this trauna, Yes we need more endorsement since our[ublicatios date back to 1963 and I still publish and write qualty books as one see on RG.

The actual possibility of endorses allows to do repetitive endorsements in a same skill of a researcher but without changing the numbers of endorses. I think that this functionality could have its possible deficiences because one can be informed of a great number of endorses when in reality the visible statistics does not change.

It is just to recognize the important role of RG for many researchers even with some possible defects. I am grateful to RG in any case.

There are no researchers "with some defects".Every researcher is unique, passionate in one's field and generous towards other human beings- especially with different point of view.I think, it's the sign of wisdom.

I agree with @Ljubomir Jacic. I have also got more than three endorsements at one time from one RG member. You can also check it.

Honestly joining for some words in Re to Prabhat and perhaps Ljubomir:

when sometimes in the display on my RG-Profile I find the invitation to endorse some colleague(s) [and 'some' are in my case up to 25 or 30 names) there are shown up to three skills one will 'endorse' with one klick.... whether such 3 skills are - at least in part - proposed by the system or had been proposed by the colleague him/herself previously I do not know. But yes: most of the proposals to endorse my followers or those I am following are taken and klicked seriously....

The failure of the preceeding system of endorses was that a researcher could delete his preceeding endorsements after being informed the receptor of the endorses already. I think that with the new system this possibility is reduced to three skills only, what it is an improvement in this sense.

If my followers across the scientific community endorse me considering that I am an old (77+ ) worker,there is nothing wrong ,the skill remains with the person wheather one is too active, less active or inactive for some reason. Take my case I have been endorsed by so many but I am blocked by RG ,This  is unfair, What is that RG wants and what are the set criteria RG sets for the global audience.The publications uploaded is abundant proof of ones skills and thats it.

Has RG deleted your Questions or limited functions without consulting you?

No. But, I cannot follow more questions which I want to follow. When I click on 'follow the question', it says "Sorry, you couldn’t follow this question because you’ve reached your follow limit." Now, the only maneuver I can use to follow a question is to 'vote' the question first.

Dear @Yuan, you do not have to upvote the question first. There is another approach to the problem. Just, post an answer and question is being automatically followed.

Dear @ Ljubomir, thank you for your response. I know that approach you mentioned. However, for some of the questions which interest me, I don't know the answers and I want to follow them to see the answers from other people.

Well, dear @Yuan, then such questions deserve upvote, right! :)

Yes, exactly, @Ljubomir, they deserve upvotes. Actually, I like almost all the questions. I don't remember any question which really turn me off. Questions juggle my brain and make me think more. That excises my brain and makes the brain healthier.

I think that all what supposes better fidel information to researchers and less hidden or inappreciable possibilities for others are improvements in RG.

Other changes as the late informations are not positive. Retard an information induces to equivocation.

A good improvement in RG would be the correct information by email of each upvote instantaneously, and the impossibility of changing opinion of upvotes or of downvotes. Otherwise it would be very imprecise and open doors to possible timely appearances. In this way bad intentions would not have and all would work well.

Dear Mariano, are you sure about: 

[CIT:] "A good improvement in RG would be the correct information by email of each upvote instantaneously, and the impossibility of changing opinion of upvotes or of downvotes."

I ask because logically IMHO it should read:  "each DOWNVOTE"....as of my knowledge, every upvote instantaneously IS definitely reported by e-mail-message including the 'thread" or title of a question... (:-))   Best wishes and regards to you and "Hello Great America" , W.M.

Dear Wolfgang,

In my case I receive information of some upvotes because in sometimes they are grouped (the first one alone) or retarded (days or weeks).

I think that operative should be more clear about exhaustive and punctual information of all identified upvotes. And the supression of possibilities of bad actuations as possible changes in upvotes without information, or as anonymous deleterious actuations against others without any explanation.

Dear Mariano, I apologize for my misunderstanding [cf. my Re# 089 this thread] due to - obviously - differently configured RG-messages...   I am on RG since 2009 (if I remember correctly) buit cannot remember that I during that long time received a so called "collection-message of upvotes" where I was notified about any upvote(s) from more than one upvoter.... Nevertheless  - IMHO -

DOWNVOTING should be possible only with posting a realtime substantiation/ the reason for downvoting.

This way the downvoting of posts/questions/replies due to base motives will be blocked automatically.

[ Downvoting WITH clear substantiation could be a valuable tool to improve the quality of 'scientific' content of RG-threads.  Best regards, Wolfgang

Downvoting is ,at least, demotivating to scientist. Instead of my new answer, I do bring some threads about the issue, where I have taken part in.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Social_media_Downvoting_and_degrading_in_social_networks-What_are_the_reasons-What_are_the_reactions

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Why_do_people_hide_their_feelings_from_others

I think that initiate down voting can be uncivilized because the down voter does not respect to the researcher. He can do comments, suggestions, corrections... but to act deleteriously against others does not seem civilized.

For sharing a Question, sometimes it is necessary to put the web address of the Question, and in other times it is not necessary. This is the reason why sometimes the link appears duplicated to the question and in other cases without any address or link to it. I have observed two changes in RG in this aspect.

All these possible improvements are into the good resource in general which is RG for all the registered researchers. Do criticisms to a good service is to improve the service only. Thank you to RG community.

It would be a great help that RG informs of the number of endorsements which one receives of other researcher, because one cannot know such number or the concrete endorsed skills actually. RG informs of one of them only now.

Sometimes, but I have received from RG other possibilities even limited.

Some key informations have been given, for example, that upvotes help to increase the RG Score, but other informations are hidden, as: Do downvotes decrease the RG Score for whom receive them of for whom give them? Are there other ways to increase RG Score since this platform alone?