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.
1,210
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What is the best time of the year to ask a question?
I wonder if there is any data on whether questions receive more attention in some months, while less in some others.
Is it better to ask during Christmas or the summer break, at the beginning or at ...
27
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1
answer
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Is it okay to put on your profile that you're looking for a job?
The title says it all. I do not see why it should be a problem, but I realize I have never seen anyone doing that here (or I forgot), so I ask.
26
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1
answer
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Why is “MathOverflow” spelled without a space when “Stack Overflow” is spelled with a space?
I assumed the name of our site “MathOverflow” is derived from the name “Stack Overflow” of the first and largest site that used the same base software (Stack Exchange). Is this so?
If it is, then ...
17
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1
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Is this question on OCR technology appropriate?
I often end up with PDFs of old math papers and books that are not searchable and cannot be highlighted (basically, they display like images). One way to make them searchable is to apply optical ...
3
votes
0
answers
145
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How to tag questions about databases of mathematical objects?
On MO there were several questions regarding databases of (some type of) mathematical objects. You can see the list of questions I was able to find here.
What would be correct tag for such questions? ...
8
votes
1
answer
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A chemistry or physics version of MO
Is there a site, similar to MO, but devoted to chemistry or physics(A discussion site in high level university research )?
25
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1
answer
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Jean-Christophe Yoccoz
I've heard today that Jean-Christophe Yoccoz passed two days ago:
Le mathématicien français Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, médaille Fields, est mort [archived], Libération, 05.09.2016.
I think people would ...
2
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0
answers
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Research in Mathematics [closed]
First year mathematics PhD student here, and I'm wondering what these next few years are going to be like and how to get the most out of my research opportunities and contribute something valuable to ...
8
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1
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What to do with useful answers to questions closed as duplicates (or by some other reasons)?
Before the question Intuitive explanation of concentration of the measure for spheres has been marked as duplicate (correctly I believe), it has got an answer which might provide additional useful ...
3
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0
answers
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Migrated question and email notification
It seems that a migrated question does not appear in the email notifications of its tags.
Question: Should it appear?
By migrated question I mean a question migrated on mathoverflow, and by e-mail ...
0
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0
answers
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Can you suggest some negative point in this post
Can one suggest me some negative points in the following post with several downvote
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/247716/topological-groupoid-structure-on-a-pair-s3-a
Thank you
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2
answers
369
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Why a Question gets Down vote and its Answer gets Upvotes?
Please, visit my question.
You will see the post has 9 downvotes and one of the answers got 7 up-votes. Moreover, the answer that got 7 votes is a mere try, not a complete answer. On the other hand ...
14
votes
1
answer
700
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FAQ on typesetting of formulae hard to find
You might have all noticed that https://mathoverflow.net/help/formatting does not mention (La)TeX. I believe this is a very important topic and should not be hidden in "advanced"; actually, a link ...
23
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1
answer
488
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If I see spam together with mathematical content in an answer, should I edit out the spam?
The title almost says it all, except that I should say that 'spam' here has the strict meaning where a vendor inserts a unsolicited link to a page that advertises or sells a product.
There may be ...
12
votes
1
answer
501
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Altering the question in a way that makes an answer obsolete
I've seen that several times: an answer makes OP want to change the question in a way that would damage the answer. Obviously this should not be done. In fact I think it is better to delete the ...
0
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0
answers
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Why is this question counted as "off topic"
Why is this question counted as off topic?
Unreasonable application of mathematics to the other areas
10
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2
answers
632
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Is bounties period sufficient?
I edit the quesion according to the comment of professor Edgar
Is it reasonable to suggest to MO to extend the bountiess period from 7 days to 3 or 4 weeks? Can mo be an exception, according to ...
19
votes
2
answers
771
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How can I tell if my question is appropriate to MathOverflow or if I should just put a bounty on it at Math.SE?
I have at least two questions which are about graduate level mathematics on Math.SE, but about which I have serious doubts regarding whether or not they are "research level". In other words, I don't ...
13
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2
answers
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Reappearance of (topology) tag
I have noticed that topology tag was created again. According to list of new tags it was created Jun 9 at 7:55. There are currently 3 questions having this tag.
I was not able to find a discussion on ...
2
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0
answers
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Do people want counterexamples in general topology that satisfy low separation axioms or high separation axioms?
When people ask general topology questions asking for a proof or a counterexample to a claim, people often do not mention whether they want a counterexample which satisfies higher separation axioms (...
11
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1
answer
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Asking for explanation of a paper?
A few months ago I asked a question about asking very specific questions about a paper. Now, I would really like to ask for a general overview and explanation of the main ideas of an entire paper.
...
39
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4
answers
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A StackExchange website aimed at graduate students?
There has been a lot of discussion about questions that do not get answered on MSE, but are not considered 'research level' on MO and thus get closed. The problem seems to be that certain questions ...
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1
answer
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Proposal for a new rule for down-vote
As I see it, the most common causes for down-voting a question should be:
The question is completely incomprehensible, or makes no sense ("Are all prime numbers green?");
The question has a trivial ...
36
votes
1
answer
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How is it off-topic to ask whether the normalization of a local complete intersection is Gorenstein?
This question (which I did not ask) is whether the normalization of a local complete intersection domain is Gorenstein. Why was this closed as "off-topic"? Especially when this one, which asks ...
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1
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New tags: Functional Data Analysis, Time Series, Functional Time Series
In my opinion there should be at least the following two tags, I couldn't find:
"Time Series",
"Functional Data Analysis".
Since functional data are used more and more and time series as a ...
16
votes
1
answer
593
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Would disallowing displayed equations ("double dollars") in titles be useful?
If a poster includes in the title some formula in enclosed between $$, like $$x^2+y^2=z^2$$
$$x^2+y^2=z^2$$
the title of the ...
8
votes
0
answers
764
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Between math stack exchange and mathoverflow
Suppose that I posted a question on mathstack exchange and no one has answered it. In my opinion it is not enough reason to post it on mathoverflow but if I also awarded a bounty and still didn't get ...
26
votes
2
answers
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Slight downward trend in Q & A
I thought MO users might be interested in this graph constructed by
Neal Young in
a discussion at meta.cstheory
about the more pronounced downward trend in cstheory.
It shows MO Q&A activity ...
16
votes
0
answers
462
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Site statistics: Effectivity of the advice to edit a question which is closed as "unclear what you're asking"
When a question is closed as "unclear what you're asking", it gets
attached the following message:
Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to
highlight exactly what you ...
9
votes
0
answers
236
views
Should delete votes add a post to the low quality posts review queue?
Presently, unlike "Very Low Quality" flags, delete votes do not add
a post to the "Low Quality Posts" review queue. -- Should they?
9
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0
answers
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Probable Homework
This post asks for the solution of a problem subject to various artificial constraints of the sort that frequently arise in homework problems. When asked repeatedly why he wants to impose these ...
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votes
1
answer
510
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How to properly ask for the (non)existence of hypothetical mathematical objects on MO?
A question from a rookie on MO.
During my research, I introduced in my physico-mathematical equations some "nasty", "problematic" mathematical objects (namely functional integrals) that are at least ...
14
votes
2
answers
618
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Recent suggested tag wiki edits
Today [Apr 21 '16] and yesterday there were a considerable number of suggested edits
to previously empty tag wikis and tag wiki excerpts (browse here;
viewing the full list requires >=10K points, I ...
12
votes
1
answer
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What's happens to a user's questions, answers and comments after an account is deleted?
I apologize if the answer to this is obvious or well-known.
I'm curious to know what happens to a user's (1) questions, (2) answers, and (3) comments after a user's account has been deleted in the ...
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votes
1
answer
256
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Change a question after counter example
This following question was motivated by this question, though many of similar nature can be found throughout MO.
The Problem: The question asks whether any bound exist on an expression, and ...
39
votes
2
answers
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Deleting others' work
Recently a question was posted on MathOverflow, which received (I think) more than an average number of upvotes. There was an answer to the question, by someone other than the OP. Next day, the ...
0
votes
2
answers
237
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Is there bias in the parity of MO reputation (or similar random parameter)?
Background:
Possibly wrong experiments with the bias of the parity of reputation
based on 2012-11 MO dumps show there might be some bias:
...
56
votes
5
answers
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What happened to the dear user "quid" (9072), they appear deleted?
What happened to the dear user "quid" (9072), they appear deleted?
Noticed this by edits I remember were from them.
Google still remembers them and the user page of user number 9072 returns 404 (...
1
vote
1
answer
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Why are opinion based questions deprecated?
Some months ago I had posted a question in the line of "Which mathematical papers should be translated?" which soon after got voted to close because it was deemed to depend on opinion. I'm not trying ...
2
votes
0
answers
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Can I migrate this question about the divergence of an infinite product to Mathoverflow?
I thought this problem was just an homework-level but it turned out neither two of my professors in the area of analysis nor users active in mathstackexchange could give me a complete solution. The ...
8
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1
answer
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No time to check an answer before the end of the grace period
I get an answer for a question with a bounty:
Positivity of the alternating sum of indices for boolean interval of finite groups
The problem is that the answer came 2 hours before the ...
31
votes
2
answers
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Can I see who voted for what after I die?
I would like to know who has up- and (most importantly!) downvoted my questions. Will I find out after I die? What do different religions/beliefs say about this? I would happily convert to see the ...
2
votes
2
answers
612
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Some proposals for modifications of the process of closing/reopening questions
I wish to make a modest proposal on closing/reopening questions. Let me begin by noting that by far the most frequent reviews are Close votes -- almost 37,000, and looking quickly most of the close ...
16
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0
answers
610
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Recurrent posting about «Matrix polynomials» and so on
MO is currently being the focus of what I guess to be a single particular individual R.T.Man sporting multiple unregistered users identity (like Eskand or H.night). S/he's asking multiple very similar ...
6
votes
1
answer
518
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Appropriateness of intuition pump question
Before I begin, please note that I am not troubled by the votes to close of my question here, but I'm somewhat puzzled about them. The purpose of this meta thread is for someone to explain why the ...
0
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1
answer
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Why is my question on hold?
Why is this question fine, but mine is put on hold? They seem to be very similar questions? Or is there some distinction that I'm not getting?
83
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3
answers
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MathOverflow user jailed
I know this is off-topic, not even being a question.
MathOverflow user Kıvanç Ersoy has been jailed, apparently for signing a petition.
Edit: As mentioned in comments, there is a petition about ...
13
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1
answer
997
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Humans, Go, Computers, Math
This is the meta thread for What advantage humans have over computers in mathematics?
It was closed, got reopened and reclosed, and reopened again.
In an effort to close the barn before the horse ...
9
votes
1
answer
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Appropriateness of question on delay differential equations
Would my question below, posted on Mathematics Stack Exchange in May 2015 and having received no answers, just a couple of upvotes, be appropriate in level for MO? I recognize that cross posting is ...
18
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0
answers
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What "lattices" do we need?
The tag lattices is a problem since a long time. Over the years there were varied discussions about this, but no clear resolution emerged, though some things were done to better the situation. This is ...