He said further down in the thread what he thinks citations are for:
"The citations are there to help readers who want to learn more about a sub topic, quickly locate new papers. They also function as a business suit, signaling that you're a serious person."
(yikes)
and various people have replied to that saying no that is not, in fact, what they are for!
How is he a professor? 😱
@FediThing @unchartedworlds @docpop The bar to be one is maybe not as high as it should be? (That's how I hope to sneak in as one, maybe!)
@DamonHD @FediThing @unchartedworlds @docpop There are universities and colleges and then there are "universities" and "colleges". Have you read about "Trump university"?
@Illuminatus @FediThing @unchartedworlds @docpop I've heard about "military intelligence" too...
@DamonHD @Illuminatus @FediThing @unchartedworlds @docpop "The announcement on arxiv regarding rejection of high probability papers written with AI, has observed a new professor consistent with the characteristic anti-professor, with a local statistical significance exceeding 5-sigma."
It's similar to post-docs or even candidates for PhDs who don't see the difference between theory and hypothesis.
@FediThing @unchartedworlds @docpop "Economics".
@unchartedworlds @FediThing @docpop
Most notably, in the academic context, they are there to acknowledge previous research on the topic, and position the paper's contribution to this body of research. Hell hath no fury like an academic uncited.
@unchartedworlds @FediThing @docpop so all those Wikipedia nerds adding [citation needed] tags just want more reading material? TIL wow lmao
@unchartedworlds @FediThing @docpop
Okay, THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE is a fundamental problem on the scale of holy fuck we are not on the same planet morally or ethically or intellectually right now and it's honestly quite terrifying, bad.
We're entering the age of "AI" with jackasses that don't understand the basic value of consent, citations, or clean fucking air to breathe. This is what we're up against.
@unchartedworlds @FediThing @docpop
"citations are there just to look cool, and to make others think that i am a serious person" - deeply unserious person
May 21, 2026, 3:35 PM@unchartedworlds @FediThing @docpop "They also function as a business suit, signaling that you're a serious person."
Oh, yea, that checks out
@unchartedworlds
I think this guy needs to go back to year 7 English and write an essay on a fiction book. He might learn what a quote or reference is for....
Then again he might just get an llm to write it and then hand it in not seeing the problem with that.