Questions tagged [asking-questions]
Questions specifically about the process of asking questions on this site.
24
questions
11
votes
1answer
446 views
Writing a proper MathOverflow question
I am in uni and I'm struggling to write a proper question for this site. I always end up writing too little and people say they need more detail. Sometimes I get a bad rep and criticised for being ...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
Should I rewrite my question, or create a new one
I posed this question two days ago, which effectively asks "Has X hard-to-describe special case on Barnette's Conjecture been proven?". In retrospect, I believe it was a poor question.
What I now ...
5
votes
0answers
109 views
When we close questions and suggest MSE, should we link to their How to Ask?
When we close questions by saying
MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ask general questions in mathematics.
...should the ...
-3
votes
1answer
471 views
Why MO community forbide me and discourage me to do my research and to post my questions?
I'm confused why MO community forbids me many times to ask question however the last question that I have posted wasn't negative , Really this method of dealing is discouraging me and discourage all ...
2
votes
0answers
100 views
What should I do if I have a question on inactive post?
I recently asked this question about gamma function, and Vincent law commented a link to another post which stated similar question.
There I found a link to MathOverflow post.
I visited there, and I ...
26
votes
3answers
1k views
Asking questions with out answering any one else’s question
Here I only ask questions and do not (can not answer for lack of knowledge) answer any of the questions.
Sometimes I feel it is bad. Some questions that I know answer to are either closed as not ...
1
vote
0answers
104 views
What should I do if I want to ask an almost duplicate question?
There already exists a question very like the one I want to ask, with a very partial answer by the OP. I want to ask the same question but restricted to a special case, for which I hope more can be ...
9
votes
3answers
461 views
Editing a question admitting a trivial example
In this question I forgot to add that I want the space to be sufficiently large.
One user wrote a (correct) answer pointing out a trivial example on $2$ points, answering the question.
It was my ...
-11
votes
1answer
159 views
Limiting the length of questions?
Many questions on MO are not formulated as concisely as they could be. I would propose a limit of characters (to be discussed, say 500 characters), and you can "buy" more space by sacrificing some of ...
26
votes
4answers
1k views
Should users be shown some basic information before posting the first question?
In an answer to another question discussing possibilities how to decrease the number of off-topic questions1 it was mentioned that: Perhaps we should force a person to read the rules before posting ...
23
votes
2answers
1k views
Should MathOverflow require registration to ask a question?
Probably anybody visiting this site regularly noticed that quite often there are posts which are not at MO-level and quite frequently also of very low quality. (Many of them are simply copy-paste of ...
2
votes
1answer
180 views
How to ask the same question with additional hypothesis
In a recent question I've asked if a claim I've make could be true, a user answered with a counterexample and so I've accepted his answer.
Now I formulated some additional hypothesis under which I ...
1
vote
0answers
90 views
How to Ask Multiple Very Specific Questions About New Applications of an Old Theorem
This question is a different flavor of this one, the difference being, that I am not looking for help in understanding something.
My "problem" is, that while ramping up my knowledge about the ...
7
votes
1answer
910 views
How to ask multiple very specific questions about a paper?
I'm slowly going through some topos theory papers by Lawvere. In almost every paper, there are many small sayings and sometimes entire sentences which I do not understand and have never explicitly ...
2
votes
1answer
202 views
Question warning without asking a question!
I have never asked a question on mathoverflow.net, yet when I was about to ask my first question, the site flagged a warning regarding the question not being well received, is this normal behavour? ...
6
votes
1answer
309 views
How could I have better clarified my question?
I seem to keep getting my posts put on hold in various stack exchanges because it's "unclear what I am asking." How can I do better to prevent this? Specifically right now I'm asking about this ...
9
votes
0answers
401 views
Questions on Mathematical Writing
Where should I ask about how to approach Mathematical paper writing? For example, the question [How to write an abstract for a math paper? ] was put on hold? Which stack exchange site should I have ...
3
votes
1answer
230 views
Reposting a Deleted Question
What are the opinions about reposting a question that come up with the discovery of a new algorithm, but had to be deleted because an "interested party" wanted to do some checking before deciding on ...
3
votes
1answer
257 views
Should I add a hypothetic solution of a partial problem in my answer or ask a separate question whether this hypothese holds?
In the MO-question on a lacunary series I wrote an answer (really: a comment) having the hypothese about an interesting fact (the function $d(x)$ as difference between the OP's function $f(x)$ and ...
6
votes
1answer
263 views
Should I edit this question or make a new question?
Should the Grothendieck ring of varieties be K_0 of numerical motives?
I want to change it to:
1) Asking about after tensoring with $\Qb$
2) Asking if there is a map in some direction and if ...
2
votes
1answer
184 views
Automatized features don't work when asking a question
When I try to ask new questions, the "autocomplete features" don't work (in Firefox ESR 31.3.0):
When I start typing a title, I don't get a list of existing titles.
I don't see a preview of my ...
3
votes
0answers
399 views
How to change the direction of an answer thread
I asked this question, with the hopes someone might help me with the algebraic proof I was working on towards the stated conjecture. Based on this meta thread, my original question got changed — for ...
11
votes
0answers
1k views
Why is my question apparently not research-level?
I just posted this question a few hours ago, and it's already had two votes to close for being off-topic (i.e., not of "research-level mathematics"). Considering it's ultimately a question about ...
47
votes
4answers
3k views
How to write a good MathOverflow question?
How do I write a good MathOverflow question? Got any advice for me?
