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.
883
questions
3
votes
0answers
183 views
About if doubts in Research papers can be asked on MathOverflow
I am new to MathOverflow.
I am a master of mathematics student. I am studying research papers as a part of my masters project. I wanted to ask if questions in research papers ( regarding what I ...
38
votes
0answers
442 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 ...
7
votes
0answers
540 views
Compulsive question editing
There is a user that is modifying a lot of question in the last couple of hours, in particular, converting to latex any plain text that he considers that should be in math mode. It is getting annoying ...
15
votes
1answer
552 views
Recognizing identifiable users changing user names
I noticed recently regular users changing usernames (for instance, changing to a username supporting some particular political issue).
The purpose of this post is not to discuss whether this should ...
2
votes
0answers
143 views
Should algebraic-dynamics tag be made a synonym for arithmetic-dynamics tag?
Disclosure: On Meta at Mathematics Stack Exchange, I have asked whether an algebraic-dynamics tag should be created and made a synonym of the existing arithmetic-dynamics tag there, given the apparent ...
13
votes
1answer
466 views
Are questions appropriate if they require answers to be edited in perpetuity?
A recent popular question asks about the status of a certain list of open problems. The OP answered his own question within 13 hours of asking it, and has now edited his answer 26 times, so that it is ...
11
votes
0answers
324 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 ...
24
votes
2answers
796 views
Questions which are research level but where the OP is unlikely to have the background to follow the research
There is a type of question which gets closed a lot which I find frustrating. An example is How to compute the volume of a region transformed by a matrix? , which I recently took the liberty of ...
2
votes
1answer
184 views
Would this question be appropriate for MathOverflow?
I asked this question in Math Stack Exchange several days ago, but I have received no interaction so far, apart from 4 upvotes. I was considering adding a bounty, but since (to my humble understanding)...
5
votes
1answer
198 views
Tags for off-topic question
This is a pretty minor issue, but what should I do (if anything) when there are no appropriate tags for an off-topic question, e.g. this one?
I tried to delete the existing tags but can't without ...
4
votes
0answers
231 views
Are questions on standard graduate textbooks on-topic? [duplicate]
I am a masters student in mathematics and I am self studying and trying problems of graduate texts in mathematics like Tom M Apostol modular functions and Dirichlet series in number theory, Serge Lang ...
8
votes
1answer
472 views
List of close reasons has changed?
I just wanted to vote to close a question, and it looks like the list of options has changed
The options are now:
Duplicate of...
Off-topic because...
Needs details or clarify
Needs more focus
...
20
votes
1answer
844 views
Is my question suitable for MO?
Around a month ago I asked a question on ME here. It was well received (got seven up votes). Sadly nobody was able to help much. To get more attention I also placed a bounty on it. Still no luck. The ...
-4
votes
1answer
236 views
Reputation recalculated: only even reputation now?
So +1 get 10 points for answers and questions, and -1 give -2 points. It is easy to see that users only have even reputation numbers now. Or did I miss a reputation-changing mechanism? (If not, why ...
22
votes
7answers
1k views
Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?
In case you missed the news, upvotes on questions now grant +10 reputation instead of +5, and the change has been implemented retroactively (most if not all users have already had their reputation ...
24
votes
2answers
967 views
MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name
I have noticed just now that a user has chosen as pseudonym "Alexander Grothendieck", which I'm a bit unconfortable with (the probability that it is also that user's name is extremely low, hence my ...
47
votes
4answers
3k views
How much is MathOverflow exposed to recent events on StackExchange?
[Long-time 10k+ MO user here, asking this question anonymously for reasons that should be obvious.
Added Oct 16: My access to this account will self-destruct in 3, 2, 1 .... (sorry, won't be able to ...
0
votes
0answers
148 views
Should this be moved to math.stackexchange?
I posted Lower bound on Carmichael Function
and just assumed it belonged here, but after thinking about it for some time I'm not so sure. The Carmichael function itself might be encountered by other ...
13
votes
2answers
480 views
What to do if you want up-to-date answers to an old question on technology
One issue with the site lasting as long as it has is that technology has changed quite a bit since its early days, and so discussions of technology are extremely out of date. In particular, when ...
0
votes
1answer
149 views
Should there be another tag for vector bundles in Algebraic geometry (over schemes)?
Should there be another tag for vector bundles in Algebraic geometry (over schemes)?
Some questions about vector bundles in the sense of algebraic geometry are given the tag whose tag description ...
6
votes
1answer
610 views
Why can't I post my question on MO anymore
It seems that my account in MO has been blocked. My post is no more accepted, saying that
we are no more accepting post from this account.
How can I get my account unblocked?
8
votes
0answers
362 views
MathOverflow in the news
What are some instances of MathOverflow being mentioned in the media?
Now that MathOverflow has recently had its tenth anniversary, I would be interested to learn of any mentions of it in the mass ...
11
votes
3answers
877 views
Happy tenth anniversary! How did you celebrate?
Question 1 was a test question posted about ten years ago from this one (give or take about an hour). There's been a bit going on since then with the main forum. This post is a place for celebrants ...
40
votes
2answers
1k views
How to cite comment by unknown user disproving Erdős conjecture?
I believe that fedja has disproved a conjecture of Erdős et al. when commenting on my question Almost monochromatic point sets, but I'm unable to contact fedja regarding this. What shall I do? Shall I ...
2
votes
1answer
135 views
Wouldn't it be nice to have subforums on MathOverflow dedicated to learning certain books/papers/etc.?
Oftentimes, I read something and start to ponder questions of the form "Does the formula on pg. 87 have a typo?" or "Isn't this a gap in the proof?" or "Why does the definition have this extra ...
11
votes
0answers
300 views
What should the tag (open-problems) be used for?
Since this issue came up in comments to another questions on meta, I'll ask about the intended issue of the open-problems tag.
Question. What is the intended usage of the open-problems tag? Should it ...
11
votes
1answer
442 views
Can we get rid of the “featured on meta” main meta links?
As you know, MathOverflow has a special status in the Stack Exchange family, and (by a special agreement) it doesn't display any kind of ads nor links to the hot network questions in the sidebar.
...
11
votes
1answer
448 views
Can I ask about entry-level questions (understanding and definitions) of research-level topics?
I am currently doing a reading on Teichmuller space and I am having trouble understanding some basic definitions. So I asked these two questions on MSE first:
Understanding Teichmuller equivalence of ...
9
votes
0answers
326 views
Suggested tag: approximation-property
I'm relatively new to MO (but have been on MSE for a longer time), which means that I don't have enough reputation to create new tags. Which is probably a good thing.
Lately I've been puzzling with ...
12
votes
0answers
536 views
Appropriateness of proposed question on applications of number theory in dynamical systems?
Update: the question has now been asked on the main site - Applications of number theory in dynamical systems
I am considering asking a reference-request type question on MO about significant and/or ...
45
votes
1answer
2k views
Why was the whole math jokes thread deleted, and should it have been?
[Topic very similar to several other recent questions, but the central question is I think not a duplicate.]
The meta thread Should these sexually suggestive jokes be kept or deleted? raised the ...
2
votes
0answers
97 views
Collaborate to answer
Question: If the question is about proving $P$, which, pointed out in comments, follows from $Q$ and $R$. Is it acceptable to write an answer only containing the proof of $Q$, as part of collaboration?...
14
votes
1answer
388 views
Links with IP adresses rather than website names
I have noticed several posts with links to pdf files where IP address is used instead of domain name the url.1 (I will list them below.) Several of them seem to be dead. Moreover, this type of url ...
-4
votes
2answers
344 views
Area 51 Mathematics Open Community Reviews
Following the discussions in
Area 51 community peer review
and links therein, I have created the following proposal
Mathematics Open Community Reviews
hoping to get things started. The proposal ...
33
votes
4answers
2k views
Catering to professional appearance a bit much?
[In case of hurry, please scroll down to the suggestions at the very end.]
The deletion of the Math Jokes thread (mirrors: html or pdf), most likely provoked by the meta.MO debate about some specific ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
Should these sexually suggestive jokes be kept or deleted?
There are a few jokes in "Do good math jokes exist?" that I think are inappropriate.
Specifically:
Nov 21 '09 at 9:01 item (1)
Oct 19 '09 at 16:03
Dec 10 '09 at 23:14
Dec 15 '09 at 1:31
All of ...
20
votes
1answer
704 views
Will ads appear on MO?
It looks like the Stack Exchange network is trying to monetize the various stack sites as much as possible, to the dismay of users across the board.
Will this affect MO?
If I recall correctly we ...
3
votes
1answer
280 views
Rules for deleting one's own question
Today (2019 July 6) a new user had posted a question that received some upvotes The problem is from contest.Please flag it for removing it and I had provided an answer that didn't solve the problem.
...
2
votes
1answer
278 views
Does MathOverflow help people get past paywalls?
I just came across the following question: Kaczorowski's paper on Distribution of Primes
In case the question gets deleted or closed in the future, the OP asks for a specific reference, which is ...
45
votes
2answers
1k views
Restoring Bill Thurston's figures in an answer
The question Floating polyhedra with fair equilibria was answered by
Bill Thurston, but his (typically amazing) answer contains links to 7 figures,
all now broken. I don't know how to retrieve those ...
13
votes
0answers
478 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 ...
0
votes
2answers
274 views
Not accepting answers
In my opinion, there is a moral obligation on those asking questions to do something with the answers: Either accept one, or to explain why none of the answers is satisfactory. I do not see this ...
49
votes
7answers
3k views
What do you want to do in September for MO's tenth anniversary?
On Sep. 28, 2009, MathOverflow went online, and has almost ten years of almost constant operation, thanks to StackExchange.
There will be an obligatory post observing the anniversary. The board of ...
-6
votes
2answers
344 views
Should we encourage non-professionals to ask hard questions if that is good for the future development of the mathematics? [closed]
There is a story about Gauss being "unimpressed by FLT, pointing out (after finding a proof of the n=3 case) that in number theory it’s very easy to come up with problems that are very hard.".
But, ...
0
votes
0answers
104 views
A questions about “on hold” status of a question and about “closed” status
I have a question that´s been put "on hold". And I have some questions.
Who can see that this question is "on hold"? Can that see all users of the site or even some people who browse this site "...
15
votes
1answer
398 views
Enabling arXiv trackbacks for [other] SE communities
I recently became aware of MathOverflow arXiv trackback feature that was custom implemented by @ScottMorrison. This is just awesome and certainly serves very well MathOverflow community.
I was ...
6
votes
1answer
402 views
Bounty from Community
This question has an outstanding bounty from the Community user.
How does that happen?
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 ...
11
votes
0answers
404 views
Primarily opinion-based questions/answers
One closing option is primarily opinion-based: Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on ...
-2
votes
1answer
185 views
How to edit tags correctly?
I attempted to edit the tags for this question. I got the message:
This edit introduces tags that do not help to define the topic of the question. Tags should help to describe what the question is ...
