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.
1,071
questions
9
votes
0answers
190 views
New stack exchange for proof assistants and automatic theorem provers
Stack Exchange will soon create the Private Beta site for Proof Assistants and Automatic Theorem Provers. If you want to see what a StackExchange site is like in its initial beginnings, want to help ...
16
votes
1answer
375 views
Viewing reputation and badges is now opt-in
This announcement is a little late (see the discussion here), but in response to discussions over many years, we (the moderators and board) have implemented a change to the site where by default, ...
13
votes
0answers
200 views
2021: 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 ...
-2
votes
1answer
122 views
Asking the same (subjective) question on Math.SE and MO
I asked a question a couple of years ago on MathStackexchange which was quite popular. I would like to ask it on MathOverflow as well, since I'd be interested in the answers there. But I'm never ...
6
votes
1answer
316 views
Top-voted questions for the year?
This link shows the top-voted questions:
https://mathoverflow.net/questions?tab=Votes
In a New Year's spirit,
how can I restrict this query to top-voted ...
-3
votes
0answers
141 views
Is it possible to transfer a question from math stack exchange despite being temporarily suspended there?
I would like to transfer my question How do we find the structure of a set with the most equidistribution using entropy? to math overflow despite being temporarily suspended for one year due to ...
11
votes
2answers
596 views
How to make welcoming comments on "homework-like" posts that will be closed?
We get posts here that are phrased as if from a textbook or homework; the one I have in mind is Find the recurrence relation, but my question is more general. Such posts will certainly be closed.
A ...
0
votes
0answers
93 views
Hinting votes for CW contributions
I would like to learn about opinions about visually indicating votes for contributions to community wiki; what I have in mind is something analogous to the green button in the "menue-line" ...
36
votes
3answers
1k views
Welcoming new user: on a recent question about connections
I think that the history of this question about connections is unfortunate. I would like to discuss (respectfully, without throwing blame around) whether/how a better outcome might have been achieved....
2
votes
1answer
265 views
What if I'm not sure about what area of math a problem lies?
One student asked me how to solve a problem and the only way of solving it that came to me seems hopeless to find an answers. It occurred to me that I may using a wrong approach to it. How could I ask ...
0
votes
0answers
116 views
Is this partial differential equation on topic for Mathoverflow?
I came across this differential equation. I'm not sure if it's research level, but I think it might be:
$$u\frac{\partial}{\partial u}\left(u\frac{\partial f}{\partial u}\right) + v\frac{\partial}{\...
14
votes
0answers
1k views
Why is the question about SO(4) embedding into SU(3) attracting so many troll answers
This question: Is SO(4) a subgroup of SU(3)? has already attracted 5 rude spam answers (most of which have been deleted by the time I posted this, but if you have enough reputation you can see them). ...
8
votes
1answer
390 views
Two traffic observations and questions
The MathOverflow traffic (page views, visits, new visits) shows steady and possibly increasing activity
over the last $2+$ yrs. The chart below runs from 2019-Jul-07 on the left and 2021-Nov-04 on the ...
0
votes
0answers
225 views
"overestimates topoi" and research level
I wonder now and then, why this question is still open
Did Grothendieck overestimate topoi?
Usually, MO's members tend to be very strict about what is and what isn't a good question.
But why is this ...
2
votes
0answers
308 views
A super easy way to speed up MathJax loading with LocalCDN add-on
I found a very neat way to speed up MathJax execution times and I thought about sharing it with everyone here. Typically whenever I start my browser I have to load up all of these MathJax resources ...
14
votes
0answers
585 views
To which extent can one modify another's question?
One highly off-topic question of real analysis was asked in the main site by a new user. One user sent, 1 hour later, a long answer going far beyond the the question, and then, 12 hours later, edited ...
2
votes
1answer
148 views
I can not find one question I have already asked
I had already asked a question as follows:
"Is there a one dimensional foliation of a two dimensional manifold whose foliation groupoid is diffeomorphic to a 3 sphere with two north pole. The ...
4
votes
0answers
289 views
Criteria for Top question?
I posed a question on Mathoverflow which got no votes, but it made it to Top question.
I supplied an answer, while nobody else proposed an answer.
How come it made it to Top question?
4
votes
0answers
169 views
How to find out why a post was deleted
It would help to know why a post was deleted, I believe in this case automatically by a MO monitoring robot. I am not judging the decision, but would like to know why, to avoid asking such questions ...
3
votes
1answer
163 views
Answer converted to comment, then reverted to answer
Earlier today, this answer to this question was converted to a comment by a moderator. The same moderator subsequently reconverted the comment back into an answer an hour or so later. One of the ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
Is it time to replace links to the UCDavis arXiv frontend?
This question from March 2020 points out that many questions/answers link to papers at the http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/ frontend instead of at the arXiv itself, but that the frontend had been down a ...
-7
votes
2answers
444 views
Why was my probability question closed?
Why was my question closed here? Probability every team successfully presents a solution
At a summer math program a contest is held for $n$ teams. Each team, composed of $n$ individuals, is given the ...
18
votes
0answers
724 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 ...
4
votes
0answers
373 views
Questions on the mathoverflow newsletter
Good morning, everyone...
I have a little question about the mathoverflow newsletter.
Ever since I subscribed to it, I used to find it every Tuesday in my gmail inbox, but I have not received the ...
24
votes
2answers
3k views
Asking a question you know the answer to, but not answering
There has been an apparent case where the question poster asked a question that had been answered in their own paper from about 10 years before the question. This would not be a problem if the ...
3
votes
0answers
194 views
A case when the closure reason might be unclear to the OP (and possibly others)
There is this question I have read about the 3x+1 conjecture so I am thinking of 3x-1 instead closed as not research level.
It is about replacing $3n+1$ with $3n-1$ in the Collatz conjecture.
OP shows ...
5
votes
0answers
260 views
Help center text references a thread but doesn't indicate which one
In the "What about open problems?" section of https://mathoverflow.net/help, the last line says "To join the discussion about how MathOverflow should deal with open problems, go to this ...
2
votes
0answers
172 views
Asking whether this question will be suitable and hence answered by people on MO ? ( I will use career and advice tag)
I am thinking of asking this question on the MO website which is due to the fact that how should I write/ explain the gap in my CV while applying for PHD programs in 2022.
Very brief of the situations ...
2
votes
1answer
419 views
Rationale for moderator deletion of a non-spammy, off-topic question
The Euler quote question "Why are people hanged if they talked" has been deleted by a moderator. I have the impression this is a new practice (correct me if I'm wrong), that deletions of off-...
1
vote
0answers
151 views
Self advertising and posting a candidate constructive proof
I would like to learn about appropriateness of posting a candidate constructive proof that decides a conjecture or open question and asking for counter examples that render the proof incorrect.
The ...
5
votes
1answer
815 views
Rationale for migration to MSE of a well-received question on MO
I was a bit surprised (annoyed?) by the migration of this question from MO to MSE. Yes, the question could have been asked on MSE, but it was asked on MO, received much attention there, with a high-...
2
votes
2answers
301 views
unaccepting an answer, and then accepting own similar answer
Happened to me recently, and I wonder whether this is acceptable kind of behaviour, and not basically stealing ideas to get points.
In that particular case the person who asked the question appears to ...
2
votes
1answer
211 views
My question is removed
Recently my question entitled "Non existence of a parametrically compatible metric to a complete geodesible vector field on $\mathbb{R}^2\setminus\{p,q\}$" is removed. What is the reason?
14
votes
1answer
531 views
How to @ a user with non-Latin characters?
When typing comments, it's useful to use the "@" system to alert a user to a comment (and also to make it clear to a 3rd party who you are addressing a comment to, as comments have no "...
1
vote
0answers
197 views
What is the correct action if the OP finds an answer incorrect (with a recent example)?
While I certainly think that the OP of the question Non trivial zeros of Riemann zeta function definitely abuses MO in a couple of ways, still I believe it is a good example for the question in the ...
28
votes
1answer
957 views
Prosus' acquisition and its effect on MathOverflow
Just saw the PROSUS acquisition news of StackOverflow. Does it have any effect on MathOverflow? In what way would it help or not help MO? Thanks beforehand.
18
votes
2answers
796 views
Using MathOverflow to help with referee work
Suppose I am refereeing a paper and wish to remain anonymous as referee. Suppose I had trouble understanding some of the proofs in the paper and made a post on MathOverflow and received a very helpful ...
2
votes
2answers
94 views
No MathJax line wrapping in Firefox
Example:
Chrome, for comparison:
Happens on Windows 10, both browsers are up to date.
Should I use the bug tag?
Does anybody else encounter this? Can it be something on my side?
After the question ...
-4
votes
3answers
311 views
Make it evident that bounties are non-refundable or refund them on other people's questions
When I went to place my first bounty about a month ago, the question wasn't mine and I almost put up 500 rep to draw as much attention as possible figuring I'd only have to surrender said rep if ...
26
votes
2answers
711 views
Concern about sending to academia.stackexchange
There have been two questions today with suggestions (one acted on, at time of writing) to close, with the question being better asked at academia.stackexchange: Referee reports and Covid lessons.
In ...
8
votes
3answers
943 views
Acceptability of "Changes forced by the pandemic"
I refer to this question by André Henriques. It is nonstandard, and prima facie there is a clear case for closing it, and at the time of writing there is one vote to do that. However, I personally ...
21
votes
2answers
713 views
How do off-topic question askers find MO?
Apologies if this has been addressed on Meta before (it's a little hard to know the right keywords to search for Meta questions with).
Question: Has there been any systematic attempt to try to figure ...
17
votes
1answer
439 views
Should the rules for deleting own questions be modified? - an example
I am aware of the own question deletion rules - in particular, kindly provided in an answer to Rules for deleting one's own question by Martin Sleziak. I think these rules have to be changed ...
3
votes
0answers
156 views
Efficacy of bounties by reward amount
Is there any data available on how often bountied questions receive answers? Can we stratify by bounty amount, to see if we're actually 'getting more bang for our buck' when we bounty higher amounts?
...
8
votes
0answers
554 views
What happened to the fonts?
It appears that MO (including MO Meta) has recently changed the display fonts:
I couldn't find any topics on MO Meta pertaining to this new change, hence this question. SO has also switched the fonts,...
19
votes
4answers
1k views
Deletion of on-topic comment threads
This question is about suppression of threads of comments by moderators, moved to chat with the message "Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat", ...
9
votes
0answers
294 views
Why are there two separate tags (open-problem) and (open-problems)?
I assume that most likely this was just an oversight - but since it was a result of a moderator's action, it is probably better to ask than just remove the tag singlehandedly.1
Question: At the moment ...
18
votes
0answers
434 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 ...
0
votes
1answer
193 views
How to deal with answers that don't answer anything?
I'm really hesitant to put this on the table, but what should be done with answers that to do not contain anything of help related to the question?
Specifically I refer to this.
It is not the fact of ...
0
votes
2answers
275 views
Name of the site
This site keeps getting questions from users who have mistaken mathoverflow for a place to ask questions about elementary mathematics. This is not a problem for me, as those too-elementary questions ...
