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I posed a question on Mathoverflow which got no votes, but it made it to Top question.

I supplied an answer, while nobody else proposed an answer.

How come it made it to Top question?

Active tab of homepage selected; page is titled "Top Questions"

Screenshot of bountied tab

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    $\begingroup$ I've never seen the phrase "Top question" applied to anything on this website. What do you mean by "Top question"? $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 5:30
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson It confused me too, but it turns out this is a case of selective blindness: the default list of question on the main page mathoverflow.net is in fact labelled “Top Questions”, for whatever reason. $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 5:57
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    $\begingroup$ So, the answer is: “Top” simply means “most recently active” (asked, answered, edited, etc). It is not connected to votes, except that questions with score $-4$ or lower are not shown in the list. $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 6:00
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    $\begingroup$ @Emil, yes, you are quite right. I think that means "top according to the ordering you have chosen for viewing the questions". So, e.g., if you view by "Active", then any time a question is asked, answered, or modified, it rises to the top of your view of the "Top Questions". [I was typing this as you were typing your comment] $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 6:01
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    $\begingroup$ Although there may be such occult criteria for nominating questions, I suggest that the Top question award, in its present form, is discontinued. $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 7:52
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    $\begingroup$ Related: meta.stackexchange.com/q/370059/177408 $\endgroup$
    – JRN
    Sep 21, 2021 at 9:26
  • $\begingroup$ @Joel Reyes Noche You are referring to an earlier edition of my question. 😊 $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 9:38
  • $\begingroup$ @FrodeAlfsonBjørdal Probably including screenshot (as you did in the post on Meta Stack Exchange) would probably make the question a bit clearer. I went ahead and edited your post - if there are some other things which would make the question clearer, you should edit it. (And, of course, if the question is for some reason better without the screenshot, you should feel free to remove it.) $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 11:15
  • $\begingroup$ @Martin Sleziak Thanks. I think also the second screen shot should be up, to avert the misunderstanding that it has to do with what tab that is active. So I will edit in shortly. $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2021 at 11:23
  • $\begingroup$ The question on Meta Stack Exchange was deleted, but one can still see the linked questions - they were mentioned in the comments or chosen as the duplicate targets. $\endgroup$ Sep 22, 2021 at 18:38
  • $\begingroup$ Every time I see this on the sidebar the capitalisation makes me think it's a question about the category of topological spaces …. $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    Oct 4, 2021 at 20:53

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