Questions tagged [discussion]

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Is this question research level?

I would like to pose a problem on Mathoverflow, and wanted to see if it's research level: Take $X=(0,1)^n.$ Fix points $p,q$ s.t. $\text{dist}_n(p,q)=\sqrt{n}.$ Classify smooth regular foliations of $...
15 votes
1 answer
374 views

Update on "Who owns my MathOverflow posts?"

I saw the question previously asked in: Who owns my MathOverflow posts? Unfortunately, I was not able to get a clear answer by reading the responses to that question, as other people had commented ...
-1 votes
0 answers
108 views

My question is deleted [duplicate]

I realized that my post below is deleted "The quetion is automatically deleted by Bot" I would appreciate if you explain about the reason of this deletion https://mathoverflow.net/...
6 votes
1 answer
486 views

The number of MO users

Is there any statistics/diagram that shows and compares the number of MO users in the course of time?
8 votes
0 answers
311 views

2022: 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 preceding calendar year. As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
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7 votes
0 answers
163 views

How is TeX rendered in edit summaries?

I recently edited a question Dynkin type classification for 2-dimensional hypersurfaces in non-commutative space, and entered as my edit summary "$<x,y>$ -> $\langle x,y\rangle$" <...
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0 votes
1 answer
281 views

MathOverflow in the classroom

My belief is that it is legitimate to cite some posts of the main site MathOverflow in the classroom of some course. Under this assumption I've wondered about the following question. I don't know ...
18 votes
0 answers
532 views

Posting multiple "answers" to an already answered question

This question was asked and correctly answered three weeks ago. Since then another user has posted, as of today, five other "answers" describing his thoughts about related questions, ...
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1 vote
0 answers
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Should this question have been CW?

Yesterday I asked a big-list question (Examples of errors in computational combinatorics results). The question is naturally big-list because it asks for various examples. Now I am not quite familiar ...
0 votes
0 answers
121 views

Gaining points for posting

How do I earn 50 points to comment if I am not allowed to comment or post? So my problem is as described as far you can see.
13 votes
6 answers
1k views

Let us wear hats

Many of the other stackexchange sites enable a festive wintertime custom every year in late December, the Winter Bash, in which user profiles are accommodated with fanciful hats, earned for various ...
15 votes
1 answer
600 views

Should we flag suspected ChatGPT posts?

Another meta question raised the issue of AI-generated (by ChatGPT or similar) posts. I have a more specific question. If we see a post that we suspect to be of this genre, would the moderators like ...
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

How should we respond to user profiles (as opposed to questions or answers) that appear to be spam? [duplicate]

I've come across 10 different MO user profiles that all have very similar usernames that contain the name of a company. None of these users have any activity on the site except for filling out their ...
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0 answers
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Is this question about partition numbers too broad/vague?

Here's my proposed question (edit: now posted) (edit 2: posted version now edited): I have found an algorithm for counting partitions, and I've been able to express it into a mathematical formula, $P(...
-3 votes
1 answer
189 views

Can a question be muted from showing up to the front of the page so answers can edit their response as much as they please?

I liked the answer to this question: An algebra of "integrals" by @anixx Which had a very detailed table attached. My understanding is the answerer had updated the question some 35 times to ...
9 votes
2 answers
206 views

Should tags be removed from spam?

When flagging spam, I usually delete tags and replace them by tag-removed as well. I just received a comment suggesting that this is not useful. It probably doesn'...
52 votes
2 answers
3k views

ChatGPT strikes MathOverflow

The user (or a bot) https://mathoverflow.net/users/496085/canvas123 appears to be posting ChatGPT-generated text on MathOverflow. Two “answers” by this user already got accepted (!): When is a ...
14 votes
1 answer
301 views

Mathoverflow for finding the name of mathematical concepts

I am used to posting on MathOverflow problems with questions. However, now I am looking for the name of a mathematical object that I think already exists (and I would be happy to find reference ...
19 votes
1 answer
564 views

Creation of "procrastination" tag

One user has created the tag procrastination: see this question. In principle I would have immediately deleted it as totally irrelevant (in the same way I would delete "Stupid question" or &...
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4 votes
1 answer
215 views

The tags (publishing) and (journals) - maybe change direction or cancel the synonym

At the moment there is a synonym publishing $\to$ journals. (With the tag journals as the master tag.) I think that at least for some questions tagged journals: Using a tag called publishing might be ...
54 votes
8 answers
3k views

We have our first user with more than 200K reputation!

Congratulations to Joel David Hamkins who on (I think!) the 27th November 2022, was the first MathOverflow user to pass 200k reputation! Since Joel joined on the 19th November 2009, he has supplied ...
9 votes
0 answers
280 views

New tag for "stochastic partial differential equations" (SPDEs)

Since there are separate tags for a) ODEs, ca.classical-analysis-and-odes and differential-equations and for b) ap.analysis-of-pdes but only one tag for stochastic-differential-equations, I was ...
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2 votes
1 answer
220 views

Why is this question locked?

This question has only two downvotes, which is not enough to keep it off the front page. I'd therefore like to downvote it, but can't, because it is locked for mysterious reasons. Because this does ...
-6 votes
1 answer
266 views

Where did the reputation go?

Some time ago, it was decided that reputation should no longer be displayed by default, but users had the possibility to opt in to see it, as explained by Ben Webster. I had opted to see reputation, ...
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14 votes
1 answer
354 views

Why was my question deleted?

Why was my question Is the Frog game solvable in the root of a full binary tree? deleted? It was a cross-post, but I followed all recommended advices when doing so. It was also decently upvoted (12+). ...
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4 votes
1 answer
381 views

Migrated question returned to MO - how to handle?

The question I am referring to is Is all complicated modern math intuitively understandable? (See the user's math.SE account to see that the question was at one point migrated to math.SE.) I think the ...
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-5 votes
2 answers
475 views

If it doesn't interest you, don't read it!

As an algebraist, if I see an analysis question on Mathoverflow that falls outside my expertise, I probably won't read it in details, and if I do read it, I certainly won't judge its "level",...
11 votes
4 answers
513 views

What to do with the erdos tag?

This was discussed before but that discussion is outdated. Tags related to a specific person are generally bad. (This is not the same as specific topics named after a person, e.g. Galois theory is not ...
46 votes
0 answers
1k views

2022 Election results: Congratulations to our new moderator!

The election is over, the votes have been counted, and on behalf of the current team and board, I'd like to welcome David Roberts to the moderators team! I'd like to thank Carl-Fredrik Nyberg-Brodda ...
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14 votes
0 answers
207 views

Which questions should be tagged “reference-request”?

The reference-request tag is currently described as: “this tag is used if a reference is needed in a paper or textbook on a specific result.” I have found current usage of this tag too broad to be ...
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-13 votes
2 answers
585 views

Why my nomination for 2022 Community Moderator Election withdrawn without convincing reason?

I was honored to participate in the elections for moderation in MO 2022 , but I am sorry to say that my candidacy was withdrawn today without any convincing reason, frankly, I did not find it ...
4 votes
0 answers
273 views

Can I ask this question on Math Overflow? (Advice on how to get started)

I am thinking of applying for a maths PhD programme. I have more or less an idea of the subfield I'd like to research, but not much more than that. I'm looking for suggestions on how to properly ...
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19 votes
2 answers
961 views

Nominating other community members

Is there no mechanism to suggest other community members for nomination? If I remember correctly, last election there was some mechanism in place to suggest community members other than ourselves who ...
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7 votes
1 answer
531 views

2022 Community Moderator Election

The 2022 Community Moderator Election is now underway! Community moderator elections have three phases: Nomination phase Primary phase Election phase Most elections take between two and three weeks, ...
20 votes
2 answers
814 views

MathOverflow conferences

What would the appropriate initial steps be to host a MathOverflow conference? Back in 2019 I hosted a party for the 10th anniversary of MathOverflow, and it was a blast.$^*$ Since then I've ...
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18 votes
11 answers
876 views

2022 Moderator Election Q&A – Question Collection

The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here. MathOverflow is scheduled for an election next week, 2022-09-19. In ...
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5 votes
0 answers
211 views

Partial answer accepted, thinking it could have been easily extended and provided enough insights

Some days ago I posted a question and I accepted an answer, "although it’s only a very partial answer," as the answer author wrote in a comment. I accepted it because I thought that it ...
3 votes
2 answers
188 views

Should we allow link-only answers that point to stable, well known and respectable sites?

I have just been presented with an answer in the VLQ queue that consisted essentially in a link to a preprint on arXiv. The user having posted it is a high reputation user, so he definitely knows the ...
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0 votes
0 answers
149 views

Asking if a post about a mathematical characterization of gravitational geons can be potentially interesting for the main site MathOverflow

I would like to ask about if a question about the following subject can be potentially interesting and on topic on MathOverflow. I would like to ask on the main site of MathOverflow about the ...
23 votes
0 answers
910 views

Upcoming election announcement (2022)

It has been quite some time since the last moderator election, and we decided that it would be a good idea to hold one soon. This is just a preliminary announcement to let you know that this is going ...
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5 votes
0 answers
220 views

Would such a "big list" on known bounds for distances between $2^S-3^N$ be appropriate for MO?

After new questions and/or activities on older questions on "bounds for distances $2^S-3^N$" appeared in MO I thought whether a [BigList] or [CommunityWiki] on known such bounds (their ...
3 votes
0 answers
149 views

Planar geometry on MO

"Planar geometry" here is 2-dimensional Euclidean geometry, usually used as Olympiad geometry problem, its objects just be a bunch of lines and circles, it has no Combinatoric aspect and not ...
11 votes
0 answers
350 views

To which extent should spam posts on meta be considered a problem?

MathOverflow is one of the few sites in the Stack Exchange network where users with reputation 1 can post on meta.1 Clearly, this has some advantages2 and some disadvantages. Probably one of the ...
10 votes
4 answers
275 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 ...
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13 votes
2 answers
560 views

Questions about correctness of published papers

A recent thread brought up the issue of the appropriateness of discussing correctness of a published paper on MO. Correctness of Thierry Aubin's argument about positive Ricci curvature I did a ...
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2 votes
2 answers
150 views

When, precisely, should history of math questions be CW?

I don't have much experience with "history of math" questions or the ho.history-overview tag. I tried to distill an answer to my question from looking at existing questions, but failed to ...
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11 votes
0 answers
360 views

Keeping a question on track or allowing people to chime in with stuff they'd like to mention?

I am slightly unhappy with the direction of drift to answers to this question. On my reading, the OP mentioned a phenomenon and asked how editors should react to it. This seems to have been taken by ...
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1 vote
1 answer
239 views

Why are some non-research questions so highly upvoted?

It is not difficult to find soft questions on the website which do not clearly strike as research level. To give examples of some: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Yet some of them are upvoted so highly that even many ...
11 votes
0 answers
265 views

New community close vote reason

While doing some cleanup on the home page just now, I noticed that we have a new community specific reason to close. The second option in the list is new, and leaves me slightly confused. While I ...
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12 votes
1 answer
550 views

Was the custom close reason mentioning Math.SE removed?

For a long time, these two custom close reasons used to be available: This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center. MathOverflow ...

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