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I got an email from arQiv.org saying that someone searched for one of my articles on arXiv. This email was sent to my email address that I use for arXiv, but I thought that was private. Visiting the arQiv.org/about site did not yield any information. What is arQiv.org? Is it endorsed by arXiv.org (Cornell University)?

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    Never heard of it. Looks like a very early proof-of-concept version of yet another paper discussion platform from an independent startup. The domain is registered by someone in Seattle, so it is unlikely that it is affiliated with the real arXiv (which is based in Cornell, in NY). It might become yet another academic spammer, be the next big thing, or be ignored by everyone and fall into oblivion when their funding runs out. I wouldn't put my money on the middle one. Nov 20, 2015 at 11:07
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    arQiv looks like an interesting concept, but I'd be hesitant to trust the legitimacy of a website that claims to be endorsed by another, unless the endorsement is reciprocated on the endorser's site. arXiv may not take too kindly to what arQiv are doing, so I wouldn't be surprised if arQiv is a short-lived endeavour.
    – Moriarty
    Nov 20, 2015 at 13:59
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    @Moriarty I don't see where they are claiming to be affiliated. Nov 20, 2015 at 14:30
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    No offense meant, but this post certainly does publicize arQiv for people like me who'd never heard of it before! I hope you aren't associated with it in any way, since SE has a policy concerning clear announcement of such an association. Just pointing out in case you weren't aware, so that you keep out of harm's way. Please ignore this if you are not associated with it. Cheers :)
    – 299792458
    Nov 20, 2015 at 14:40
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    @TheDarkSide I am in no way affiliated with this site, and I have informed arxiv.org about their mass emailing procedure. The reason I didn't add links to the site is that I wanted to minimize the publicizing the site. Unfortunately, every question on the form "Is X a legitimate service" will publicize X, but also, I hope, serve as a warning of X when due.
    – Pål GD
    Nov 20, 2015 at 15:12

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Their about page seems to be blank, and their terms and conditions read "I'm NOT a spammer! arQiv.org reserve the right to refuse service to anyone. You must agree to use our website." The heated denial of spamming is not very convincing, especially when they just e-mailed you out of the blue to announce that someone was searching for one of your articles on their site (which might be true but is unverifiable). Note that gathering e-mail addresses from the arXiv for spamming is possible but against arXiv policy. If arQiv.org e-mailed me, I would probably add them to my junk mail filter and forget about them. I can't imagine they are endorsed by or in any way connected with the arXiv, and I see no reason to think this site is going to make useful contributions to academia, even though they may have good intentions.

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    Looks like they want to be a discussion forum for papers, rather than a paper archive/distribution service. (The "you must agree to use this website" button is weird, because it's not clear what you are agreeing to, exactly.) Nov 20, 2015 at 14:28
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    I use an adblocker, so I didn't see any ads, but looking at the page HTML source, they sure seem to embed multiple of them -- I think this is just about making money from visitors.
    – Max Horn
    Nov 20, 2015 at 15:40
  • Hmm. I disabled my adblocker on that site, refreshed, and still didn't see any ads. Confusing. Nov 22, 2015 at 0:06

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