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44 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to cite comment by unknown user disproving Erdős conjecture?

I believe that fedja has disproved a conjecture of Erdős et al. when commenting on my question Almost monochromatic point sets, but I'm unable to contact fedja regarding this. What shall I do? Shall I ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 18.4k
36 votes
4 answers
883 views

Why not 'thanks' in comments?

I've noticed a message in mathoverflow's place for comments saying that '+1' or 'thanks' comments are not appropriate. I don't agree with the second kind of comment being inappropriate. I think it's ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar
35 votes
4 answers
2k views

Answers in comments are increasingly more common

I have checked a random sample of questions in the main page, and it seems that almost every one of them has some form of answer in the comments, apart from completely unanswered/untouched ones. This ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
32 votes
5 answers
744 views

Couldn't the comment vote rate limitation be made more ergonomic?

Quite often I read a comment thread, and then decide which comments I vote up. As soon as this is more than one comment, I get an error message that I can cast only one comment vote every 5 seconds. --...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.5k
23 votes
1 answer
5k views

Why was my dissenting viewpoint in a post about diversity censored?

In a question about special lectures for the ICM, the following answer proposed that a lecture on how to make the mathematical field more diverse be given. The answer contains some rather bold ...
Patriot's user avatar
  • 1,038
20 votes
1 answer
806 views

The math! It's overflowing!

See what happens if you expand the comments on this question, we get this prime example of a math overflow: Of course, this is due to a \$ problem, but still, it seems to be a flaw in the CSS that ...
Manishearth's user avatar
18 votes
3 answers
1k views

Comment template for questions more appropriate for MSE

I think it would be nice to have a comment template that everyone could use when a (new) user asks a question on the site which is clearly more appropriate for MSE. Here's what I've been using today: ...
Michael Albanese's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
162 views

Making it easier to access hidden comments

This is a follow-up of this recent post, and hopefully a feasible suggestion. Problem: If a question/answer has many comments (say more than fit on my screen) and I decide to read them all, in ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.2k
18 votes
4 answers
1k views

Deletion of on-topic comment threads

This question is about suppression of threads of comments by moderators, moved to chat with the message "Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat", ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 60.4k
16 votes
1 answer
564 views

Is there a problem with answers clarified in comments, but the clarification not reflected in the answer itself?

Occasionally I am re-reading my answers in case I've overlooked something or left some misguiding misprint or something. What I noticed is that there are a couple of them where I was not entirely ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
337 views

comments that are not displayed right away ("add/see 10 other comments")

Often when I start reading comments, it is only when I come to the end that I see a link like "add/see 10 other comments". I can understand that if there is a huge list of comments for the same ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.2k
15 votes
0 answers
158 views

Converting a too-long answer in a comment should generate an error message

I just tried to convert an answer into a comment; it was too long for a comment, and the software just truncated the text. I think it would be better to either generate an error message, ask for ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
531 views

Interpretation of Time-limit for Editing Comments

Yesterday I had written a comment and, after 4 minutes began editing it. After having finished my editing, I tried to save the comment and was prompted with the message, that editing is only possible ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.7k
14 votes
0 answers
234 views

Long MathJax in comment breaks linewrapping throughout the comment thread [duplicate]

A picture is worth a thousand words; here is what I am talking about, from the comments on this post. By posting a very long formula into MathJax, not only have I caused my own comment to run off the ...
David E Speyer's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
580 views

Cleaning up comments

Traditionally, MathOverflow moderators only delete comments that are highly problematic. Even in that case, we copied the entire deleted comment thread to tea.mathoverflow.net. Since migrating to the ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
522 views

When to answer a question via a comment?

I have noticed something a bit confusing to me during my first few days here at MathOverflow. In the "about" section it says users can "improve posts by editing or commenting." On multiple occasions I ...
Maxim Gilula's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
705 views

Why did flagging a comment for deletion made it disappear immediately?

I wrote a comment under an answer, claiming that the answer was wrong. The poster replied to me in another comment, showing that my argument was wrong. Acknowledging this, I deleted my comment and ...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,282
12 votes
1 answer
576 views

Should I delete my own question if it turns out trivial after a comment?

I had not given this question enough thought before asking it. I went straight to looking for a reference without thinking about it. Somebody pointed out the obvious solution in a comment. Should I ...
Thomas Kahle's user avatar
  • 1,961
12 votes
1 answer
324 views

Being notified of the comments under the answer of someone else to your post

Sometimes a lot of good things happen as the comments under an answer to your post. Though we are notified of the answers given or the comments under the body of the post, it seems that we are not ...
Amir Asghari's user avatar
  • 2,277
11 votes
3 answers
688 views

"This question has been answered in the comments."

Athanagor Wurlitzer has recently been adding answers saying "This question has been answered in the comments" (see, e.g. https://mathoverflow.net/a/156051/3). I'm inclined to delete these answers (...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
385 views

Should there be a general policy for putting comments on "not-suitable-for-MO" questions?

Right now, there is a question posted on MO that rightly does not belong to MO: The equivalence of the mathematical induction and the principle of the smallest. Of course, such questions comes and ...
Amir Asghari's user avatar
  • 2,277
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why adding a comment requires 50 reputation points?

When a new member tries to write a comment he sees “add comment (requires 50 reputation)” but of course he has no so many points. On the other hand, answering does not require any reputation. Then the ...
simeon2's user avatar
  • 31
10 votes
4 answers
305 views

Is it possible to see the source for a comment?

Although this question seems to be new to M.MO, @MartinSleziak points out several related posts on Meta.MSE. I was curious about the diagrammatic magic of @YaakovBaruch's recent comment, and so ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.4k
10 votes
1 answer
384 views

Questions answered in a comment

It may happen that a question has zero answers, but is actually already answered satisfactorily in a comment. An example is this question. I think this is somewhat misleading, as the "0 answers" ...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.5k
10 votes
1 answer
196 views

Should I be able to notify multiple people with the same comment?

One of the many things I was excited about in our move from MO 1.0 to 2.0 was the chance to leave responses to previous comments that automatically notify those people. Occasionally, a conversation ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
472 views

Is it considered good practice to clean up one's "useless" comments?

Hovering with the mouse above the upvoting arrow of a comment shows the text "this comment adds something useful to the post". Therefore arguably the number of upvotes a comment receives equals the ...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.5k
9 votes
1 answer
280 views

Is it ok to write a CW answer extracted from a comment of some user?

Suppose I have seen an answer to a question by a user X. Suppose another user Y leave a comment under X's answer. This comment received good number of up votes (6 as of now). This comment is not ...
Praphulla Koushik's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
270 views

I can't post comments on first generation iPad

I have a first generation iPad, with OS 5.1.1, and sometimes look at MathOverflow on it, in the Safari web browser. Recently, it seems as though posting comments has stopped working. I type the ...
Jeremy Rickard's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
180 views

Changing mind about upvoting a comment

If I change my mind about upvoting a comment, is there any way to cancel my upvote there?
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
283 views

What is to be done about replies left as edits?

This question attracted a comment that seems relevant and helpful. Unfortunately, the user who tried to leave this comment is new and has a reputation of 1. The user could not leave comments, so ...
Yoav Kallus's user avatar
  • 5,926
8 votes
1 answer
321 views

Comment / Down-vote / Vote to close -- in what order, with what delay?

If I see a post that I think belongs on MathStackExchange, what should be my first response? a) Comment to the user b) Down-vote c) Vote to close with suggestion of migration And how long should I ...
user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
482 views

The strange case of a declined comment flag

I came across this question and noticed there were four comments stating the current number of deleted answers. However, as none of them were up-to-date, I decided to flag them as obsolete. But here'...
Smi's user avatar
  • 105
7 votes
1 answer
170 views

How to find highly upvoted comments?

My question is simple: is there a way to find the most highly upvoted comments on mathoverflow?
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.2k
7 votes
1 answer
292 views

Can a bounty be awarded to an answer in a comment?

Recently I have placed a bounty on this question. The question has no answer in technical terms, but it has been answered in a comment within the bounty period. Now the banner below the question says ...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.5k
7 votes
1 answer
194 views

How to cut and paste

It has happened a few times that I have wanted to move someone else's answer from the comments to an answer, when the poster implicitly does not wish to do so (by not responding after a days-old ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.4k
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Hyperlink in a comment?

How do I add a link to an external published article in a comment? I don't see the edit frame with the link button. What is the syntax I can use? (I did search Meta but did not see ...!)
Fred Dashiell's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
332 views

Only one addtional @user

Why do we have this restriction? There are many circumstances where it is natural to cite several users (especially when several=two) in one comment.
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
311 views

Automatic comments by Community

There seem to be automatically generated comments by "Community". As an example, this question by a new user has Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 60.4k
5 votes
1 answer
204 views

Backticks breaking MathJax in comments

The backticks that were used to circumvent MathJax problems on MO 1.0 were removed in questions and answers. However, it appears that the comments were not affected by this fix and thus display ...
Martin's user avatar
  • 1,287
4 votes
1 answer
201 views

Problem replying to comments

Usually, I'm able to address a comment to someone by writing "@[whoever]" before the text; but in a comment to a recent question (Compact, densely ordered spaces) I wasn't able to do this: when I ...
Noah Schweber's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
187 views

Answer converted to comment, then reverted to answer

Earlier today, this answer to this question was converted to a comment by a moderator. The same moderator subsequently reconverted the comment back into an answer an hour or so later. One of the ...
Carl-Fredrik Nyberg Brodda's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
92 views

Migrating a question removes some comments?

This question has just been migrated to MSE, but I notice that not all comments were migrated in the process. This is unfortunate because one comment (by YuiTo Cheng) pointed to a highly relevant ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 30.2k
4 votes
1 answer
156 views

Markdown not rendering in a particular comment

In a recent comment, one occurrence of stars-to-italics ('particular') doesn't render, but one does ('abstract'). This seems to be a bug. Is this the right place to report it? EDIT: Now also ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.4k
4 votes
2 answers
157 views

Is it possible to provide information about further developments outside MO that followed a question/answer?

It happened several times - I've found a very interesting (for me) relatively old answer or question which would most likely lead to some new research. I ask about any possible recent references in a ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
135 views

Are my comments searchable?

My activity page in particular contains "All actions" tab; all my comments are there. Can I search for, say, a specific word there? A wonderful answer by Martin Sleziak to my question Is it ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
70 views

Occasionally reproducible bug with macro definitions in a draft post affecting macro use in comments

In the course of a discussion involving using MathJax to re-define macros, I couldn't recall if MathJax obeys a \newcommand for an already-defined macro, and so ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.4k
3 votes
1 answer
177 views

I can't find a comment to my answer

I have posted an answer to this question: Most dispersed set of points in a disk?, but do not see any indication that a comment has been left to that answer, if I however use the StackExchange App, ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.7k
3 votes
1 answer
140 views

Is linking to comments possible?

I vaguely remember seeing links to comments somewhere, was it a dream or it is indeed doable?
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
279 views

Searching for comments

Is there a method to search past comments only. I'm interested in a comment I read years ago that was not specific to the question or answers, so it wouldn't be in the normal search. Keywords: ...
Fred Daniel Kline's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
113 views

`\DeclareMathOperator` at the beginning of a comment disables some link parsing

In a comment of the form $\DeclareMathOperator\a{a}$Here's a [link](http://mathoverflow.net) and [another link](http://mathoverflow.net) $\a$, neither link is ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.4k