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.

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-6 votes
1 answer
372 views

Are these close-votes cast correctly?

I asked this question on MSE. It received up-votes and one answer that seems imprecise and unsatisfactory to me. Then I posted it here on MathOverflow for answers of higher quality, and it was also ...
Amit Sing Mukerjee's user avatar
17 votes
0 answers
259 views

Reviewing first posts that are answers or late answers

When reviewing first posts that are answers or late answers to questions that have existing answers I invariably go to the original question to see these answers since I want to check if these new ...
Chris Ramsey's user avatar
  • 3,944
-5 votes
3 answers
652 views

VIndictive downvoting--what can be done about such childishness, errh, lack of professionalism?

Clearly, from my reputation record, there has been some vindictive downvoting in the last three days or so. MathOverfflow is a community of people, not saints, and things like this are expected to ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
  • 9,937
6 votes
1 answer
397 views

Are interdisciplinary questions about mathematics of musical instruments on-topic here?

I have some mathematical questions that lie between music and mathematics, particularly applications of mathematics in building musical instruments. As an example see this paper: The Mathematics of ...
Amit Sing Mukerjee's user avatar
20 votes
2 answers
886 views

It's been another year...MO exists since six years!

As provable by Question Number 1 the site started to exist almost exactly six years ago. Everybody who feels like saying something on this occasion, feel free to post an answer.
user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
504 views

Downvoting and Closing of a Good Question

This seems to be a perfectly good (i.e. interesting and nontrivial) question that was downvoted and closed for mysterious reasons. As far as I can tell, the main objection is that the author ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
28 votes
12 answers
1k views

Site updates are live

A majority of the changes are not be visible; these tweaks go along with recent updates that were made to Stack Overflow: We have updated the site's CSS to a newly refactored LESS system, so that it'...
Kurtis Beavers's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
249 views

Next badge appeared and disappeared

A few days ago I noticed that under the recent achievements tab there were two status bars showing how far along you were to the next privilege and next badge. I liked this but it has now disappeared. ...
Chris Ramsey's user avatar
  • 3,944
8 votes
1 answer
469 views

What points should someone think about before joining MathOverflow?

What points should I tell to someone whom I'm encouraging to join MathOverflow for a better contribution to this site and avoiding problems of any type as much as possible?
user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
535 views

Is it good to ask somebody else's question on MathOverflow?

It happens for me in the face to face meetings or emails that my friends ask me about some mathematical questions that I don't know their answer. In such cases I sometimes ask their questions on ...
user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
396 views

What to do when the answer makes details of the question moot?

In this question I asked about a theorem in an old paper. I gave many details explaining the difficulty I was having in following the proof. The author of the paper kindly replied, pointing me to a ...
Neil Strickland's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
334 views

Archiving of MathOverflow threads

We've had some discussion of adding an archiving feature to MathOverflow on the private moderators list, and I thought I should report on the current situation. (You might also read earlier threads ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
654 views

Should top mathoverflow threads get DOIs and be permanently archived?

Josh from The Winnower (thewinnower.com) here. I wanted to reach out and see if users of mathOverflow would be interested in permanently archiving and assigning DOIs to top threads with The Winnower. ...
Josh's user avatar
  • 1
4 votes
0 answers
202 views

My question is flagged as being potentially subjective and therefore liable to be closed. Opinions please

I have a 'soft' question as follows: 'How did you first become interested in becoming a mathematician?' The sort of answers I'm seeking are factual rather than subjective, e.g. I first ...
chasly - supports Monica's user avatar
-10 votes
1 answer
399 views

Why so heavy downvoting?

For this question I received 7 upvotes and 9 downvotes. Why is so heavy downvoting?
Anixx's user avatar
  • 9,306
12 votes
0 answers
343 views

OpenScience Q&A just went live

Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there was an Open Science private beta at StackExchange that did not quite manage to develop enough traction so it was closed down recently. Some people want to ...
user avatar
18 votes
4 answers
1k views

What areas/aspects of mathematics are underrepresented on MO?

The question: What areas/aspects of mathematics are underrepresented on MO?
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.2k
7 votes
1 answer
550 views

Can I get a promotion?

What activities, if any, are currently being done to promote MO? Have opinions changed from two years ago with this post?
Chris Ramsey's user avatar
  • 3,944
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
7 votes
1 answer
471 views

Ignore this question no more

There is an odd question on the main site: Ignore this question* The question is no longer required to fulfill its purpose as stated in the body.† Perhaps it ought to be deleted outright. As it is ...
user642796's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
236 views

Why was "Awfully sophisticated proof for simple facts" closed (two years ago)?

Most likely veterans became bored with Awfully sophisticated proof for simple facts but for newcomers it is such a delight! My actual question is: what happens with closed questions? Do they become ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
24 votes
4 answers
1k views

What makes you vote to close a question?

Some recent exchanges and observations suggest to me that users not only have different thresholds for voting to close a question yet still applying the same criteria, but that they even apply so ...
user avatar
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

early graduate level questions: MO or Math.SE?

When I first began on this site MathOverflow took questions at all levels. Then Math.SE was created and the level of MO has crept up steadily with Math.SE not necessarily absorbing the remainder ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.6k
16 votes
0 answers
585 views

area 51 proposal - Math review

Recently I created a new proposal at area 51; it's called Math Review (http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/90443/math-review), and it is intended to be a Q&A site concerning troubles one ...
Conrado Costa's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
112 views

Migrating question from Math SE

I posted this question on Math SE a month ago but it has had no responses even though I also placed a bounty on it. Whilst it is at graduate level, I'm unsure whether to ask it here since the ...
Matt B's user avatar
  • 101
45 votes
0 answers
1k views

ImageShack images turning into ad banners

It's been fairly well known for some time that ImageShack is a poor image host for Stack Exchange, because they frequently delete old images and replace them with placeholders. Recently, however, ...
Ilmari Karonen's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
657 views

Help! Help! The colors are off!

I have a deja vu. Are the colors wrong, completely?
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 38.1k
-2 votes
1 answer
494 views

Can we change the reference to "professional mathematicians" on the main page?

I'm personally quite bothered by the statement on the MathOverflow main page (when not logged in) that "MathOverflow is a question and answer site for professional mathematicians." It seems both false ...
Sam Lewallen's user avatar
  • 1,109
7 votes
1 answer
239 views

Is the use of hierarchic tags too redundant?

Is there a policy which tags to use when there is an obvious hierarchy? For instance, questions with tags random-matrices or matrix-analysis could also be tagged more generally matrices to make ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.2k
46 votes
2 answers
1k views

arXiv vs MathOverflow - popularity of disciplines

Inspired by the comparison of programming languages by GitHub and Stack Overflow activity (e.g. this one for 2015) I decided to look at the popularity of mathematical disciplines by using data from ...
Piotr Migdal's user avatar
  • 1,592
-7 votes
1 answer
257 views

Can the Math Overflow look be changed? [closed]

I love the math sites but I rarely visit this MathOverflow site because of its look. The color and appearance is not appealing. I know this will sound weird but the mathematics is cool, maybe they can ...
Madona wambua's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
940 views

Examples of MathJax codes of directed labelled graphs to use in a MathOverflow Question

I need some examples of MathJax codes of directed labelled (with loops or multiple edges) graphs to use in MathOverflow Questions so that I could easily change them to my graphs. Here is my try to ...
Alireza Abdollahi's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
743 views

Down vote without comment

I received a down vote on this question without any comment. Can one help me to understand how this question could be improved? I think that a moral and implicit policy of MO is that a comment ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
-23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Freedom of speech in scientific discussions - An invitation to more tolerance in Scientific debates

I hope this post enjoys some tolerance, and don't get closed or put on hold immediately. I believe that freedom of speech in scientific discussions is one of the key values which enriches the debates ...
user51223's user avatar
  • 3,071
1 vote
1 answer
309 views

Is this physical motivation appropriate for the question? (or any such question in general)?

In this question, I have two ways of reconstructing signal from finite Fourier coefficients (0 to 4kHz only), one being the Fourier partial sum $S_f$ and other (math motivation of question) lets call $...
Rajesh D's user avatar
  • 704
9 votes
0 answers
502 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 ...
Halbort's user avatar
  • 1,129
12 votes
0 answers
517 views

2% of viewers vote?

Maybe this is not possible to quantize accurately, but might it be the case that Q. Approximately 2% of those who view a posting on MO vote +/- on the question? That's approximately true for my ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
287 views

Is this measure theory question suitable for MO?

A moderator at Mathematics StackExchange asks if this question would be suitable for migration to MO: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1331258/using-a-sequence-of-measures-to-create-simple-...
Todd Trimble's user avatar
  • 52.3k
48 votes
4 answers
3k views

On discussion of published papers at MO

There is an interesting discussion taking place at MO over the suitability of this question: Complex structure on $S^6$ gets published in Journ. Math. Phys. The question is about the correctness of a ...
Todd Trimble's user avatar
  • 52.3k
10 votes
1 answer
428 views

Delete wrong answers or leave them for instructional purposes

It is tempting to just delete a wrong answer on mathoverflow.net. However, some errors are subtle, and it might be instructive to label some wrong answers as such, but leave them on MO to highlight ...
Dominic van der Zypen's user avatar
28 votes
2 answers
673 views

Migrating to Math.SE: too many close reasons [duplicate]

As everyone knows, we get a fair number of questions on this site that are not research level, but would be appropriate for http://math.stackexchange.com. As a frequent Math.SE user, I have an ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
236 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 ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.6k
7 votes
1 answer
196 views

Maximal bounties

Which question in MO has had maximal total bounties among other questions? I mean the total bounties which are given by the asker or other participants.
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
13k views

Using MathJax for formating (**bold**, *italics*)?

Some users use MathJax to get italicized or bold text. This is sometimes done in titles (where MarkDown is not available), but some users do this also in body of a question, where MarkDown is used. ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
604 views

A (type of) question which falls between MO and academia.SE?

This question Style of mathematical writing vs. too many lemmas seems like it may get closed. I am somewhat torn as to whether it should stay open or be closed (and so I have neither voted up nor down ...
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 25.5k
-10 votes
2 answers
395 views

Would you like to see a MathOverflow Mods' Office?

Recently Math Stack Exchange created the Math Mods' Office with the following room description: For informal chat with the site moderators about moderation, spam, troublesome users and other ...
user 85795's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
574 views

Is this thread really discussing mathematics or some technology?

The activity going on in this thread, I do not think it can be constituted as mathematics. It think it is image processing, but still not the mathematical aspect of the image processing but purely on ...
Rajesh D's user avatar
  • 704
0 votes
1 answer
178 views

How to get better response on a problem (specific case study) and suggestions from mathematicians?

Why not enough response for this question. I guess there is too little interest in classical Fourier analysis. I have given enough motivation, which is about proving a possibly new result in Fourier ...
Rajesh D's user avatar
  • 704
3 votes
2 answers
194 views

Appropriate to ask question regarding choice of "magma" to describe simple algebraic structures?

I just started reading Bourbaki's Algebra, and posed a question regarding the choice of the word "magma" (which I came across on the first page of Bourbaki) on History of Science and Mathematics SE. ...
bzm3r's user avatar
  • 398
8 votes
1 answer
338 views

Sticky vote controls at MO?

This SE meta post mentions a test of sticky vote controls. I couple of days back I remember that I had sticky vote controls for a short while but then it returned back to normal. The linked post ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar

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