Timeline for Scope and mission of MathOverflow
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 15, 2021 at 11:01 | comment | added | Alec Rhea | @DavidRoberts I think we may be experiencing something similar to what (I imagine) facebook went through in the early days; initially it was a fun little thing between friends, both useful and amusing, and now it's a platform powerful enough to help stage coup attempts and radicalize nations. MO isn't quite there yet, but as its prominence grows so does a need for more serious introspection and potential correction. As spiderman put it, 'with great power comes great responsibility'. | |
| Jan 13, 2021 at 19:52 | comment | added | Yemon Choi | @FrancescoPolizzi Likewise, I have a vague memory of responding to someone's rather vague question of how something should be done by saying "with great vengeance and furious anger", which is the kind of silly geekery I indulge in among friends or in "casual online mode" but is not the response I would give to, say, a student in one of my classes | |
| Jan 11, 2021 at 8:39 | comment | added | Francesco Polizzi | Let me provide a silly example. In the (very) old days, I remember there was a question like "Solve this integral! I need it now", and I commented something like "Hoover my living room". Of course it was a joke ("bring your humour with you"), just to make evident how annoying an imperative request can be. Nowadays, I would never make such a joke: someone could take a screenshot, post it on Twitter or Facebook and I would spend two days explaining that it was not my intention to use my privileges of male white professor to make a student cleaning my house. Nowadays, I just close the question. | |
| Jan 11, 2021 at 6:45 | comment | added | Francesco Polizzi | I think MO started as a game, and our behaviour here was funny and light-hearted. Now we are considering it very seriously, as shown by all the discussions we had in these days. Looking at some of the comments, I'm afraid that the amusement is over. Perhaps this is just as life goes. | |
| Jan 11, 2021 at 0:31 | comment | added | Hailong Dao | @DavidRoberts, may be it's us, I noticed many other things that are less fun than when I was younger. | |
| Jan 10, 2021 at 23:31 | comment | added | David Roberts Mod | I feel MO is less fun that it used to be, but it seems like it's for a bunch of different reasons, not all to do with MO. | |
| Jan 10, 2021 at 8:44 | comment | added | Monroe Eskew | Humankind. ( ◠‿◠ ) | |
| Jan 9, 2021 at 21:38 | history | edited | Hailong Dao | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 9, 2021 at 20:52 | history | edited | Hailong Dao | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 9, 2021 at 20:46 | history | answered | Hailong Dao | CC BY-SA 4.0 |