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I'm looking at this question, which got closed as a non-question, and yet did award its author in the "famous question" badge.

Technically it passes the 10k views, but I think this is either a plain bug, or a mistake. We shouldn't be awarding "good question" badges to questions deemed as "non-question" and that should not be on MO.

What do you think?

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    $\begingroup$ it's been viewed > 10.000 times, so it passes the MO definition of "famous", seems OK to me. $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Beenakker
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 21:02
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    $\begingroup$ @CarloBeenakker I added a paragraph in the edit. Basically, if it was closed for being a bad question, MO shouldn't award badges to it. $\endgroup$
    – Amir Sagiv
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 21:07
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    $\begingroup$ The question provoked a lot of discussion, part of it on a serious level. There are other closed questions that got many, many views, like this or this. They are even further away from research level stuff, but late in the evening, they are really fun. I don't envy the authors their gold badges at all. Finally, the badge is called "famous", maybe with a hindsight. Just figure out who got famous in the world outside, and for what. $\endgroup$
    – Sebastian Goette
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 21:40
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    $\begingroup$ @SebastianGoette I agree that we don't go for MO for the shiny (virtual) badges. But If we award questions, they should be considered good across the site. Maybe this question shouldn't have been closed if it was so interesting. Maybe it's a signal to expand the "good question" definition a bit. $\endgroup$
    – Amir Sagiv
    Commented Apr 21, 2016 at 21:49

1 Answer 1

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What is better, to erase/hide mistakes from the past, or leave them and learn from them?

The question was asked years ago, when the MathOverflow forum was hardly a year old, and the community was still working out what made an acceptable balance of professional and popular questions. That the question you mention is still around is because it got some answers which were voted up, and one got accepted. The system does not automatically delete such questions, nor do the moderators. That it got such a badge shows how to write a question with great appeal.

To answer the question of "What do you think?", I think it isn't a big deal, and that the question mentioned can serve as a useful guide. I don't see questions like that on this forum now. And the author deserves the badge technically.

Gerhard "It Isn't Really A Problem" Paseman, 2016.04.21.

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