Timeline for Should we reopen "The resolution of which conjecture/problem would-advance mathematics the most?"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 18, 2020 at 21:29 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | I did not cast any votes either way, but the trouble I see with the question is that it is implicitly asking, "Which subfields of mathematics are the most important?" While this is not as inflammatory as a question about politics, it is opinion-based in a way that seems inappropriate for MO. | |
| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:58 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://mathoverflow.net/ with https://mathoverflow.net/
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| Dec 2, 2014 at 17:18 | answer | added | Gerhard Paseman | timeline score: 1 | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 3:11 | answer | added | Joseph O'Rourke | timeline score: 13 | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 22:05 | history | edited | Kim MorrisonMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 36 characters in body
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| Dec 1, 2014 at 19:06 | comment | added | Neil Strickland | I cast the final vote to reopen. However, I regard that as tentative. I might reverse my opinion if we do not get insightful answers in the next couple of days. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 18:44 | comment | added | user9072 | Perhaps as a compromise, let us keep the question open as long as (b) holds? | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 18:29 | history | edited | Todd TrimbleMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 37 characters in body
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| Dec 1, 2014 at 6:00 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | @Lucia I do understand that point of view; thanks. Another interesting test case came up here: mathoverflow.net/questions/38639/thinking-and-explaining A part of the problem I'm having with the current question is that it's a crystal-ball question, asking us to imagine (and defend a pov on) a scenario we necessarily have a dim grasp of (cf. Stefan Kohl's comment), whereas Thurston's question was encouraging answers based on deep inner experience. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 5:49 | comment | added | Lucia | @ToddTrimble: You make a perfectly valid point of course, although I still like the idea of cutting more slack to people (posting under their real name) based on their IRL reputation. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 5:37 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | @Lucia Of course, but I don't see a strong connection with fedja's (a). Kriz gave a very insightful and thoughtful answer, and based on his IRL reputation we can expect more of the same and very much wish to encourage that. Joseph O'Rourke is a very valuable member of our community, to say the least, but in my view the MO-appropriateness of his post is questionable and I don't want to encourage the asking of that sort of question, by him or anyone else. What his high rep and intelligence do is make it uncomfortable or at least harder to say this openly. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 4:56 | comment | added | Lucia | @ToddTrimble: I just saw you welcome Igor Kriz to MO. Clearly having someone like him is a good thing for MO. Wouldn't you agree that that gives a compelling argument for (a): there are a priori reasons (that we can all agree on) for welcoming Igor Kriz rather than user-abcde. Re the question: I too am ambivalent about how useful it is, but I am sympathetic to fedja's reasoning. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 3:53 | comment | added | Todd Trimble Mod | I'm not sure I find (a) particularly compelling, and it makes me uneasy that the same question asked by user-xyzuv would very likely get closed without a murmur as irremediably subjective and opinion-based (what makes it suddenly appropriate when asked by someone with high rep?). It's a great question for a blog, obviously. As for (b): knock on wood. I'm sorry to say that with the exception of Paul Siegel's answer, the ones that have so far appeared don't look like they were composed with much care. :-( | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 0:07 | comment | added | Stefan Kohl Mod | Another issue with the question is that the extent to which the resolution of a particular problem advances mathematics often depends also largely on how the resolution looks like (does it give further insights, or is it only a long technical chain of arguments that somehow does the job?) -- and that is usually not known before one has actually solved the conjecture / problem in question. | |
| Nov 30, 2014 at 22:31 | history | edited | user9072 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
tag, removed notice the purpose of which was unclear to me and seems even more obsolete now I am the one displayed in the active list
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| Nov 30, 2014 at 21:07 | comment | added | Donu Arapura | I am aware of (a), and I mean no disrespect to the author when I say this, but questions like this or "Who was the greatest mathematician?" can be entertaining in private (with enough alcohol). But I am less sure of its place in a public forum like this. | |
| Nov 30, 2014 at 19:11 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | I wasn't keen on the question, but I refrained from voting to close, mainly because of your observation (b). I think I am still ambivalent and will wait to see if a consensus decision emerges :) | |
| Nov 30, 2014 at 19:09 | history | edited | Yemon Choi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
link in title seemed not to work so I moved it into the question
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| Nov 30, 2014 at 18:35 | history | asked | fedja | CC BY-SA 3.0 |