Flag-planting on arXiv was normal for a decade — LLMs just made it worse
RexDouglass · x · 2026-09-21
A lively discussion in the TCS and ML communities about poorly written papers on arXiv.
- Posting buggy, incomplete, or incorrect drafts for flag-planting purposes has been the norm for over a decade in both TCS and ML
- The community has long rewarded flag-planting over proper writing, rarely calling it out
- LLMs make the problem far more overwhelming, and the long-overdue reckoning is now underway
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