1
$\begingroup$

I have a question about my MathOverflow post: Sequence without average density (It's deleted!)

I've asked it on 15.07.20 (currently yesterday), and in several few minutes realized that USA's time is 4 a.m. Then I deleted this question to ask it later, when USA will have normal time. But when I undeleted that, no-one saw it because I've undeleted on it's yesterday position, and was too low in list for anyone to see that. But when I tried to delete this question again and copy-paste its text to a new question, MathOverflow said "This post appears to be a duplicate of *My question*". Can I reask this question if I asked it in an inconvenient time?

$\endgroup$
4
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ This is not a research-level question anyway, and as such it is off-topic on MathOverflow. It would be more appropriate at math.stackexchange.com . $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 20:09
  • 5
    $\begingroup$ And, my goodness, there are people in the world who know mathematics outside the USA! 4am in the US is a very sensible time in the morning for those in the Old World who might want to peruse MathOverflow and try their hand. It's also a pleasant afternoon/evening activity for those of us Down Under, or even in East Asia, where there are also mathematicians. $\endgroup$
    – David Roberts Mod
    Commented Jul 16, 2020 at 23:32
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Aside: what is 4am USA time? At the moment USA spans at least GMT-4 (Eastern Daylight) through GMT-10 (Hawaiian Standard). If you include American Samoa, it stretches to GMT-11. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 17:35
  • $\begingroup$ @WillieWong New-York's time. $\endgroup$
    – Gordem
    Commented Jul 17, 2020 at 17:44

1 Answer 1

7
$\begingroup$

It doesn't matter when you ask the question. Yes, at 4am US time less people will visit the site, but there are less questions to compete with visibility as well. So deleting and undeleting 'at a convenient time' won't help.

Years ago, I conducted a similar experiment on Stack Overflow. Running that query for MathOverflow wouldn't be as clear, since there are much less questions here and outliers play a significant role. Here is a query which gives a better overview. The x-axis is the number of hours since Sunday 0:00 UTC; you can see (blue line) most questions are posted around 15:00 UTC during weekdays. The yellow line shows it doesn't really matter when you post the question in terms of the number of views.

enter image description here

That said, you can edit the question to supply additional information or improve its formatting, and it will rise again to the top. Please don't do this several times just to bump the question, that is considered abuse of the system.

$\endgroup$
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .