Questions tagged [discussion]
The question you're asking is designed to solicit opinions or best-practices on a particular topic, with the goal of reaching community consensus.
982
questions
2
votes
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2020: a year in moderation
As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the past 12 months.
As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network ...
8
votes
2answers
167 views
Do we use the downvote button more than other sites?
Is there data available (besides crawling thousands of questions) on how often we use the downvote button, and how quickly?
The motivation for this question is Carlo Beenakker's recent answer on MOM.
...
7
votes
6answers
1k views
What do we mean by welcoming when we're a site aimed at researchers?
I was just browsing the main page this morning, and I decided to look at some of the posts by new people. One of the questions had garnered three votes to close and a comment from a regular user to ...
15
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3answers
745 views
Scope and mission of MathOverflow
I followed with much interest the recent discussions on Meta about the community being perceived as unwelcoming to outsiders and the importance of looking for solutions (if any).
In order to do this, ...
-6
votes
1answer
460 views
A radical proposal on votes and reputation
I was trying to explain the current controversy how “welcoming” MO is to a non-mathematician friend. The current best hypothesis for why MO is either attractive or repellent in general is that it has ...
19
votes
5answers
2k views
MathOverflow policymaking and transparency
There goeth rumours abroad that some off-site groups are seeking a private forum together with the moderators here in order to make policy for MO.
I hope that the moderators will commit to ...
21
votes
3answers
475 views
Customize the modal window for the first-time askers
When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with a short advice. The content can be either a generic message or it can be customized for a ...
6
votes
1answer
275 views
Once a thread is deleted, is it really too late to bring it back?
I was under the impression that "deleted" threads were still visible by moderators or other high-level members of the community. Is this correct? If a post was deleted that shouldn't have ...
2
votes
0answers
75 views
Appropriateness and cross-posting
I am interested in this question on math.stackexchange. To me it is interesting because while it looks "obvious" that there isn't a solution with 6 turns (I have some very partial results ...
1
vote
2answers
191 views
A question of notation: what does $x\lt y\in S$ mean? [closed]
I've seen expressions like $x\lt y\in S$ used on this site to mean "$x\lt y$ and $x\in S$ and $y\in S$." This has me worried because I sometimes use $x\lt y\in S$ to abbreviate "$x\lt y$...
26
votes
3answers
2k views
What are our procedures if a user complains about harassment or abuse?
Context for this question: I am writing an article on MathOverflow for the Notices of the AMS. One thing I try to address is the apparent gender skew of our website. One of the readers of my draft ...
1
vote
0answers
74 views
Can I ask for advice or opinions about the choice of a variant of a theory?
Basically, I have 2 versions of a theory. This is like having two competing theories of complex numbers, one where $i^2=-1$ and the other where $j^2=1$ (hyperbolic numbers) or extending reals with $+\...
8
votes
5answers
251 views
Is it possible to temporarily comment out part of a post?
Scenario (true story): after posting something I became doubtful about certain claim there,
so I want to hide it until I clarify my doubts.
Of course I could just move that part to a temporary file, ...
13
votes
1answer
237 views
Should we have a tag for second-order logic?
There are a number of questions on this site about second-order logic (admittedly I may have asked a few more of them than is reasonable). For example, searching "second-order logic" (in ...
12
votes
0answers
380 views
Utility of Mathematics: Is this question appropriate here, and if not/if so, how can I phrase it better?
I would like to know if this question is appropriate for Math Overflow, and if so, how I can phrase it better to get the best results.
Question:
I recently spoke with a very nice mathematician who ...
5
votes
0answers
333 views
Question on topic for Mathoverflow?
My question, asked months ago, was well received. Now...
I'm wondering if this question is on-topic for MathOverflow:
Consider a semi-Riemannian manifold $\zeta^{2,2}$ with metric, $g=\frac{dxdy}{xy}+...
3
votes
1answer
210 views
Questions seemingly/apparently/ostensibly too elementary for overlfow
Well I don't really get notifications of flag responses sooo...
Nov 6 at 14:01 helpful - I suggest you take this up in meta; there is not enough space to answer here. But there are a number of ...
0
votes
0answers
89 views
Please help me improve my Q&A and possibly reopen certain questions
Prepare to downvote me. But don't think of not downvoting me just because I pre-emptively self-deprecated myself to put a show of humility. Just pretend I'm as arrogant as I may be perceived to be in ...
2
votes
0answers
57 views
Why is the ‘mathematical logic’ tag spelt [lo.logic]? [duplicate]
On MathOverflow, questions about mathematical logic bear the tag lo.logic, which has a synonym of logic.
Where did this lo.logic spelling come from? Why is it not ...
14
votes
0answers
795 views
Vandalism edits by apparently-anonymous users
There is an answer to an old community wiki question that was edited about 45 mins ago to make it sexually explicit, with a second attempted edit pending approval to make it even more so.
I rejected ...
0
votes
1answer
108 views
Site for reviewing articles, formulas, theorems, etc?
This question might be weird, I wouldn't feel bad if it is closed.
I know that MathOverflow is for mathematicians and math StackExchange for people studying math at any level. But questions like "...
1
vote
0answers
84 views
Why did my profile picture disappear?
I discovered few days ago that my profile picture is gone, had to reupload it.
Did anybody else encounter this? Do you know the reason?
0
votes
1answer
232 views
Are new users with inappropriate questions given help or rudely dismissed?
I often see questions like this: co.combinatorics - Given index $i$, what element is at position $i$ in sorted subsets that are obviously better suited for the Math.SE site.
This particular question ...
15
votes
2answers
432 views
Is there left any way to highlight part of text after all?
Currently we have quotes, but
the quoted text looks more faint than the surrounding text
The vertical bar hardly helps, I believe. In fact I think (although I cannot explain it) that this bar ...
10
votes
0answers
502 views
Bounty awarded to an immediately deleted answer
Something peculiar has just happened. A week ago a 300 point bounty has been added to this question (I think its content is hardly relevant to this meta question) [note: the bounty was added by a user ...
6
votes
2answers
343 views
Creating theories-of-arithmetic logic tag
It seems to me that a tag for "arithmetic logic" is missing while it concerns a significant number ($\sim 500?$) of questions, which currently have no common tag other than the very broad lo....
0
votes
0answers
182 views
I want to answer a closed question
Please reopen this question:
A problem of an infinite number of balls and an urn
I have a nice answer.
(Added (DR): now re-opened. Please note there are ten deleted nonsense answers, which I imagine ...
-1
votes
2answers
145 views
Should “does anyone access this paper” questions be community-wiki?
Should questions consisting in barely asking for a copy or link to some given paper be community-wiki?
A recent example, among others, is and Reference of J.L. Waldspurger's paper on Shimura ...
10
votes
0answers
301 views
What should you do if you find old duplicates?
Sometimes I discover that "old" MO questions are duplicates of even older MO questions.
Two examples:
Embarrassingly, I found out that my own question: Formula for number of permutations ...
2
votes
0answers
256 views
Is asking about name of a curve a research level question?
In my opinion this post is not a research level topic but surprisingly it has been received 22 votes.
Is the linked post a research level question and appropriate for MO?
I think it is more ...
13
votes
1answer
324 views
Any policies around Dead links?
I have been reviewing a lot of older posts (~10 years old) and there are quite a few with links that are either dead or links that point to sites that no longer contain the relevant information that ...
14
votes
1answer
308 views
Can I retag questions to get a topic badge?
This is just something I was wondering: I currently have 19 non-CW answers in real-analysis. Could I just go through my old answers looking for a question which involves real analysis but hasn't been ...
1
vote
1answer
109 views
Updated questions
The following question of mine frequently appears as recently updated question so I frequently find it at front page. But neither me nor other participants did any revise or edit on this post and its ...
43
votes
6answers
1k views
Should graduate students be encouraged to participate in MO? If so, at what stage?
When I started graduate school ten (!) years ago, a more senior Ph.D student at the time told me about MathOverflow and encouraged me to participate. Ever since then I have found it immensely useful. ...
-11
votes
1answer
195 views
Why are votes secret?
It would be more correct if at least those who receive a vote know who it comes from.
It would be even more correct if the vote were motivated.
13
votes
1answer
606 views
Did spacing increase recently?
Yesterday I noticed that line spacing in questions & answers is bigger than before, something like 1.5
Is there some global change, or is it a bug? Or maybe I do have a bug or something?
Can I ...
0
votes
0answers
99 views
Can I delete one of my posts that has been closed as off topic and received an answer with positive up-vote?
Can I delete one of my posts that has been closed as off topic and received an answer with positive up-vote?
Should I delete all my posts that has been closed as off topic? (with/out answer)
-3
votes
2answers
2k views
Why have I been suspended from the ICM chat? General remarks about unwelcoming behaviour on MathOverflow
Although the below obfuscates the context which is undoubtedly relevant to what has happened, the following comments appeared to be reason enough for the moderators to ban me from the ICM chat.
...
10
votes
5answers
2k views
Questions, answers, comments or discussions on aspects of politics relevant to mathematicians on MathOverflow (main or meta)
Given the recent question here on meta about the deletion of a
comment stating a political opinion on an answer which also stated
a political opinion which sparked a lively debate, let me bring up the
...
1
vote
0answers
87 views
Why is an MO front-page question greyed out? [duplicate]
Why is symmetric monoidal double categories? on the MO front page greyed out?
19
votes
1answer
4k 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
306 views
Is it reasonable to expect that the number of upvotes is greater than the number of favorites?
Am I mistaken to think that logically the number of upvotes to a question should be greater or equal to the number of favorites?
The small difference between these two numbers in this post: Examples ...
-7
votes
1answer
456 views
What is the best way to ask for comments on your proposed proof of some known theorem on MathOverflow?
Firstly, I apologize in advance if this post in not suitable for MO, but in my personal circumstances, I have no other place where I could post it.
Suppose one is fairly convinced that they have found ...
22
votes
1answer
1k views
One person creating multiple Riemann Hypothesis-related accounts
I have been flagging these posts individually, but I thought maybe a meta question would be a good follow-up, in case the moderators are not aware of the behaviour. As @YemonChoi points out, the ...
1
vote
1answer
355 views
Student trying to cheat in an exam
This deleted question (10k+ users only) is a student who just copied exam questions and wanted help, and admitted it in the comments to me before deleting the question. I would like this question to ...
2
votes
1answer
242 views
Reporting a possible 2nd account belonging to a network-wide suspended user
This user is suspended for 71.63 more years:
A user with the same name is not suspended:
Perhaps the mods can investigate their IP addresses and act accordingly (both users are basically active on ...
9
votes
1answer
1k views
Why does this (old) funding proposal for MathOverflow, say that Ben Green got the Fields Medal?
This funding proposal says:
But Ben's name is not mentioned here.
34
votes
0answers
741 views
Richard K. Guy, the centenarian mathematician
Professor Richard K. Guy, the great number theorist had passed away long before in March. Since there were no posts to commemorate him on this site (as far as I saw), I decided to post this question ...
1
vote
0answers
194 views
Impact of politics on the availability of video conference software for mathematics online conferences
I'm not sure that this is the best place for this post, but on the other hand I could not think of a better forum. Of course I understand if this post must be downvoted since it doesn't strictly ...
0
votes
0answers
210 views
Would asking this question be permissible on the main site?
I have been working on a problem for days, that I previously mentioned on ComScience StackExchange. The answers were helpful. But, I need more information to develop a polynomial space algorithm.
I ...
