Timeline for If it doesn't interest you, don't read it!
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
31 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 29, 2022 at 9:55 | comment | added | Martin Sleziak | Some older discussions on this meta related to mathematics education: Are research questions in MSC 97 (Mathematics education) allowed on MO? and How should we react to the existence of Math Educators SE? | |
| Oct 26, 2022 at 3:53 | vote | accept | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | ||
| Oct 26, 2022 at 3:50 | answer | added | David RobertsMod | timeline score: 7 | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 14:59 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | in History of Math or Math Education, but they will not receive any "reputations" for that. I think that could satisfy the critics. It is important to accept that not everybody cares about "reputations" on Mathoverflow. Some people are here out of pure curiosity. | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 14:55 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | Some people may be on Mathoverflow for accumulating "reputation" points. They see it as a competition. They may not be primarily motivated by having a discussion, they want to increase their "reputation". From this point of view, discussion doesn't matter. The competition has to be "fair". History of Math or Math Education reputations may not be as difficult to accumulate as research math questions. That's why it is not fair. Let's do an experiment: what if Mathoverflow is altered so that certain tags cannot contribute to users' "reputation"? People can ask and answer to questions (continued) | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 14:47 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | I had asked: why can't people skip such questions? A real distraction is something that one does not have control over. Click on the tag of your interest and you will filter out all other "off-topic" questions. There is a search feature here, people don't have to go through every question to find research questions in mathematics. What you say does not explain why someone can't just skip questions with certain tags to avoid getting distracted. One has complete control over that. I would like to offer my own explanation for why some people can't just ignore certain questions: (continued) | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 14:40 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | @FedericoPoloni I won't focus on your own "fallacies" here (e.g., job postings and advertisements are not questions, hence can't appear on a site that is for questions, etc.) Instead, I would like to acknowledge your point of view: I hear what you are saying. However, I think what you offered does not explain your own reasons for opposing History of Math or Math Education questions. You said such questions "make it more difficult to locate useful content, distract the attention of users, and make them less likely to visit this site. People come here for research math questions". (continued) | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 7:14 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | And if your argument in favor of these questions is "I want to reach research mathematicians, even if this is not what they signed up for, because they are the best audience for me", then it works also for a job posting, an ad for blackboards, etc. Do you think they are on-topic here? | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 7:10 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | @MahdiMajidi-Zolbanin I don't think these comments are a good place for this conversation, but anyway: You're setting up a "slippery slope" fallacy argument here. HoM and education are sufficiently different from "regular" mathematics in their research techniques, themes and background to deserve their own SE site, which indeed exists. Graph theory is not; it overlaps with many other tags. And one could argue that grammatically even the name "history of mathematics" means that it fits into the realm of history, not mathematics; exactly like a "box of cookies" is a box, not a cookie. | |
| Oct 25, 2022 at 2:55 | answer | added | fedja | timeline score: 9 | |
| Oct 24, 2022 at 22:12 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | @FedericoPoloni by that argument we should have a subdivision of Stack Exchange for every tag on Mathoverflow. For instance, Stack Exchange Algebraic Geometry, Stack Exchange Number Theory, etc. What I was asking was, what makes a research question in History of Mathematics "off-topic", but a research question in Graph Theory, relevant, for instance? | |
| Oct 24, 2022 at 20:50 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | @MahdiMajidi-Zolbanin The subdivision of Stack Exchange into topic-specific sites is useful to direct users to their preferred content. Off-topic questions make it more difficult to locate useful content, distract the attention of users, and make them less likely to visit this site. People come here for research math questions; if they wanted to see mathematics education they would go to matheducators.se. | |
| Oct 24, 2022 at 20:36 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | @FedericoPoloni Perhaps you can also tell us what harm you think may be caused by questions in history of mathematics and/or mathematics education? | |
| Oct 23, 2022 at 21:28 | comment | added | Federico Poloni | @LSpice I agree with everything you wrote, and I think it should also apply to history of mathematics questions. But I think that mine is a minority view on this topic. | |
| Oct 17, 2022 at 10:10 | comment | added | YCor | @GeraldEdgar Being downvoted is not a punishment either. | |
| Oct 16, 2022 at 6:32 | comment | added | Gerald Edgar | @LSpice wrote "being closed is ...not a punishment". I agree. A corollary is that we should vote to close such questions, but should not downvote them. | |
| Oct 15, 2022 at 23:23 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | @LSpice Furthermore, I am not sure why the word "punishment" appeared in your comment, as that is not what I said. What I said, was some people should have an awareness that they may not have sufficient qualifications to judge every question related to Mathematics Education, just like they don't try to answer Mathematics questions outside their specific area of expertise. I called for more tolerance, and suggested that instead of reacting angrily, they can just skip the question! Why do they have to read it at all? | |
| Oct 15, 2022 at 23:16 | comment | added | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | Dear @LSpice, If you are both fair and curious, I would like to ask you to check the Mathematics Education tag and see for yourself, among the top 10 most recent questions posted there, how many are research-level questions in mathematics. The answer is zero. Thus, your suggestion for taking it as community norms is problematic. I think the issue is caused by having a Mathematics Education tag on Mathoverflow, but not having a tolerance for certain type of questions. Consequently, one solution would be to remove that tag entirely, which is not what I am suggesting. | |
| Oct 15, 2022 at 21:51 | comment | added | LSpice | … It might be closed, but, in the end, being closed is just a report on the appropriateness of a problem, not a punishment. And such a question can still be seen on MO, and considered for re-opening, in case the original impression is wrong and the broader community does welcome the question—and, in that case, as far as I know there is not even any indication other than in the revision history that the closure ever happened. | |
| Oct 15, 2022 at 21:47 | comment | added | LSpice | A research-level question in mathematics education is not the same as a research-level question in mathematics. Even having a question that is best answerable by mathematicians does not make it a research-level question in mathematics, and mathematicians do not congregate only on MO. While such questions are important, the opinion of some in the community (including me) is that they do not belong on MO. I think you should take it as just an expression of community norms, not of any anger. Overall, if you think that your question is appropriate, then feel free to post it! … | |
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:48 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:38 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:27 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 4 characters in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:17 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:11 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 20:05 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
deleted 1 character in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 19:44 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 1 character in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 19:09 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 3 characters in body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 19:03 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 18:57 | history | edited | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
edited body
|
| Oct 15, 2022 at 18:51 | history | asked | Mahdi Majidi-Zolbanin | CC BY-SA 4.0 |