With the arXiv’s new policies for posting, I am now getting inundated with requests from cranks for endorsements. Here is my suggestion for the arXiv: when someone requests an endorsement, there should be an option (rather than ignoring the email) of giving a negative endorsement, i.e. “here is a crank, please keep this person away from the arXiv”. That is certainly my reaction 100% of the time whenever I have received such a request. Perhaps even better, don’t allow anyone without an .edu account to post to the arXiv at all.
While we are making requests on the arXiv, perhaps the most useful one would be the ability to click on someone’s name and go to a list of their papers. Simply loading a search for “lastname, first initial” is close to useless when it comes to common Chinese surnames; it’s a strange choice of default setting.