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.
265
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
81
votes
0answers
2k views
Donations to MathOverflow, Inc
Long time followers of MathOverflow will know that as well as the website, hosted by StackExchange, and moderated by the moderation team with all of your help, there is an independent 501(c)(3) ...
52
votes
0answers
961 views
Is there a software solution if we do cut the cord from SE?
There has been some recent concerns about MathOverflow's relationship with StackExchange: see
What is MathOverflow's "agreement" with Stack Exchange?
How much is MathOverflow exposed to ...
44
votes
0answers
986 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, ...
43
votes
0answers
1k views
An interactive graph of MathOverflow tags
I created a graph of tags from Stack Exchange sites (including MathOverflow), TagOverflow.
It is a continuation on my previous project - plots with static graphs and (sadly) without MO (due to API ...
36
votes
0answers
457 views
Happy 4th anniversary, MathOverflow!
As some will cerainly know today (September 28th) is MO's anniversary, its fourth to be precise. Since this year it appears there is no system-message to celebrate the event, I thought I create this ...
34
votes
0answers
753 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 ...
34
votes
0answers
592 views
Revamping the closure reasons
Motivation 1
Currently the custom off-topic reasons for MathOverflow read:
This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center.
...
31
votes
0answers
950 views
2013 Election Results
The election process is over, and now it is time to declare the winners:
Good luck in the new position, I'm sure that you'll prove to be a great addition to the community and its moderators!
On ...
25
votes
0answers
1k views
Unregistered Users (in Theory and in Practice)
There's been past discussion (e.g. here) about whether MathOverflow should allow posts from unregistered users. I am fully on board with the apparent consensus that the answer is yes, because of the ...
23
votes
0answers
820 views
Request to keep an eye out for PROMYS admissions problems
Many of you may be familiar with PROMYS, a camp based out of Boston University which teaches number theory to high school students each summer. Students applying to the program are asked to submit ...
23
votes
0answers
692 views
Should "The probability for a streak when tossing a coin" be reopened?
The question "The probability for a streak when tossing a coin" is on hold. [Edit: It has been reopened.] I disagree with closing the question and voted to reopen.
This problem may sound like it is ...
20
votes
0answers
845 views
Are we making it too tempting/easy to send inappropriate posts to MSE?
This "question" (asking for generalized help with a long list of elementary topics) is clearly going to be unwelcome almost anywhere, yet two users voted to close with a suggestion to "see math....
20
votes
0answers
732 views
Which "non-arxiv" tags are de facto top-level tags?
The tag system on MathOverflow is designed in such way that each question should contain top-level tag; these are the tags which correspond to subject areas on arXiv and generally have format such as ...
19
votes
0answers
1k views
Increase in unexplained downvotes on (old) questions/answers?
I recently received a downvote without comment on a question and all of its answers, which are good independent of the value of my question imo. I’ve also had two other questions receive similar ...
19
votes
0answers
400 views
The message "User was removed" can be ambiguous
You could save me a few heart attacks :-) by changing the message to the more clearer "Voter was removed" (or whatever you see fitting). I first thought I was removed (maybe on another suboverflow, ...
19
votes
0answers
1k views
18
votes
0answers
687 views
Why is the "last seen 96 years ago" feature gone?
User homepages used to display the information "last seen ... (min/days/...) ago". It appears this feature is gone now.
I found it useful, and while it does divulge some otherwise ...
18
votes
0answers
433 views
Three-vote close?
MO users might be interested in this StackExchange experiment:
Testing three-vote close and reopen on 13 network sites.
There has been considerable discussion around close-votes in MO Meta over the ...
18
votes
0answers
502 views
Removing questions after answers
I recently gave a simple counter example to a question posed (I'm sure the mods can see the question). Probably the user was embarrassed by this. The question was promptly deleted and with that my ...
18
votes
0answers
521 views
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 ...
17
votes
0answers
580 views
Effects of the Stack Exchange 'update to Terms of Service' on MathOverflow
Do the recent changes to Stack Exchange Terms of Service affect MathOverflow in any way -- and if yes, what are the concrete effects?
17
votes
0answers
255 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 ...
16
votes
0answers
456 views
Studying the MathOverflow data dump with Mathematica
This is just a mention of some work Wolfram has done recently, allowing you to import a database dump of MathOverflow and analyse it within Mathematica.
The Data Science of MathOverflow
Their ...
16
votes
0answers
1k views
Can we please reopen the colorful language in mathematics question?
A long time ago, the question
What are some examples of colorful language in serious mathematics papers?
was closed because someone posted a copy of Spencer Bloch's review of Milne's Étale ...
16
votes
0answers
462 views
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 ...
16
votes
0answers
502 views
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 ...
16
votes
0answers
569 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 ...
16
votes
0answers
653 views
16
votes
0answers
297 views
Redundant ways to close as off-topic/better on MSE
Right now, there are 4 ways to vote to close a question as off-topic.
"This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center."
"...
15
votes
0answers
1k views
Suspected foul play with a triple of questions
A little while ago someone asked (now deleted, but link still here: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/314572/advice-on-how-i-can-i-publish-my-solution-of-the-riemann-hypothesis?noredirect=1#...
15
votes
0answers
548 views
The existing deprecated tags should be blacklisted
TL;DR: I suggest to blacklist the deprecated tags that still exist on some questions, in order to prevent them from being added to new questions.
There are a few tags which are deprecated and should ...
15
votes
0answers
389 views
How to re-ask an old question?
I would like to know whether there has been progress in the last five years on the 2011 question H^4 of the Monster. Given the discussion there (and also given what else I know of the field), it seems ...
15
votes
0answers
442 views
Question was deleted, I'd like to know the answer or contact the poster
This question (now deleted) asked for a way to compute generators for $I \cap \mathbb{Z}[z_1,\ldots,z_n]$ as an ideal of $\mathbb{Z}[z_1,\ldots,z_n]$, given generators $f_1,\ldots,f_m \in \mathbb{Z}[...
15
votes
0answers
655 views
"Questions" of the type "I have written something, please give me feedback"
I have now today seen several questions (this and this)
which asks for feedback on research articles, rather than stating explictit questions.
There is of course a gray zone, but I wonder a bit what ...
15
votes
0answers
375 views
Area 51 proposal: History of Science And Mathematics
I've created a new proposal on Area 51 for a Stack Exchange focusing on the history of mathematics and science.
As a math student, I am constantly studying the history of the subject. I feel that ...
15
votes
0answers
691 views
The 6 semi-essential meta questions of every SE 2.0 upgrade
In the spirit of The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta
I realized that there were a few things that needed to be decided by a large site that has suddenly gone SE 2.0. Initially I planned to ...
14
votes
0answers
600 views
Should moderators in some cases remove a question from the network-wide hot questions list?
Not too long ago - in March 2019 - some changes have been made to the Hot Network Questions (HNQ). Some of the new features are the limit on the number of hot questions from a single site, or limit on ...
14
votes
0answers
504 views
Thank you letter!
I am quite aware that meta has not designed for what I am about to write, but I cannot help myself. This concerns a recent "question" on MO: US editors and reviewers vs Iranian Authors? Indeed, it ...
13
votes
0answers
806 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 ...
13
votes
0answers
777 views
Diminished activity during pandemic?
There has been a reduction in "traffic," but not nearly as
much as I anticipated. This chart is maybe a few days
behind a fast-moving situation, but I find it somehow
comforting that math "goes on." ...
13
votes
0answers
629 views
Users with many questions having negatives votes
I am a bit hesitant to bring up this issue, but since it does bother me a good deal here goes. It has similarities with this other meta question but with a more objective edge maybe.
It is a fact ...
13
votes
0answers
505 views
Should this teaching question about Graph Theory be reopened?
Should What (fun) results in graph theory should undergraduates learn? be reopened? In the comments, Andrej Bauer suggests that it is should be moved to Math Educators Stack Exchange, while Fedor ...
13
votes
0answers
547 views
Is this question appropriate for MO? (Recognizing cohomological ideas)
About two weeks ago I asked this question on MSE: https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1085946/when-should-i-be-doing-cohomology. (Short version: what are some ways I can tell that some sort of ...
13
votes
0answers
426 views
Should/may I delete this flawed question?
Two days ago I asked the following question: Does a lisse $\ell$-adic sheaf give rise to an affine group scheme?
Even though I had been thinking about the question for half a week, I was half an hour ...
13
votes
0answers
432 views
Asking exactly what you need
If you compare my remarks in
Do partitions of unity exist if we impose additional conditions on the derivatives?
and
Exponential sums
you'll see that the problem and my request were exactly the ...
13
votes
0answers
355 views
MathOverflow Weekly Newsletter / Greatest hits from previous weeks
I don't know how many look at the MathOverflow Weekly Newsletter, but these were
the "Greatest hits from previous weeks":
"Video lectures of mathematics courses available online for free" from Feb ...
13
votes
0answers
325 views
Will MO have Community Promotion Ads?
Community Promotion Ads seem to be a useful tool for helping spread various links that might be useful for users of the site.
I have mostly encountered them at MSE. I have learned several ...
13
votes
0answers
430 views
Use of arXiv tags
When MathOverflow began we decided to start using arXiv classification and created corresponding tags. These are still the most broadly used tags on MathOverflow. However, the usage of some these tags ...
12
votes
0answers
415 views
What do moderators do these days?
More than 7 years ago, Scott Morrison asked a great meta question: What do moderators do?, and recorded some useful answers. Some seem to be of general significance, but many of the answers were ...
12
votes
0answers
388 views
2019: a year in moderation
Since the start of the new year, I've been posting questions on various sites detailing how the various moderation actions taken on these sites break down between Moderators and ordinary members of ...
