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.
1,057
questions
2
votes
0answers
140 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?
2
votes
0answers
146 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 ...
2
votes
1answer
154 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 ...
-9
votes
0answers
120 views
My recent question
I recently asked: Completion of $S\cong \Bbb Q$.
Note: If the commenters and answerers could include (why is this question good and why is it bad) I would be grateful for that.
What do the experts ...
17
votes
2answers
478 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 ...
-6
votes
2answers
401 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
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 ...
5
votes
0answers
366 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
2k 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 ...
2
votes
0answers
186 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
247 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 ...
1
vote
0answers
166 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 ...
3
votes
1answer
413 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
141 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
806 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
296 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
208 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?
13
votes
1answer
521 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
190 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
949 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.
17
votes
2answers
781 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
89 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 ...
-3
votes
3answers
304 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
658 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
926 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 ...
20
votes
2answers
708 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
429 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
155 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
553 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
290 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
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
189 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
272 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 ...
11
votes
1answer
348 views
Can I ask a question on MathOverflow and also on another site?
Sometimes one might ask a question on a website such as Mathematics Stack Exchange which is comparable but not identical to MathOverflow, and then decide to post the same question on MathOverflow. ...
9
votes
5answers
341 views
Revising the help page on "What topics can I ask around here?"
This is a freestanding post taking its content from a previous discussion on the modal window for first-time askers. Thanks to Martin Sleziak and Tim Campion for the encouragement to post it ...
15
votes
5answers
575 views
What should the modal window for first-time askers say?
When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with some introductory advice. As explained in the March 2020 announcement of this feature, there is ...
11
votes
0answers
370 views
Can I undelete questions deleted by the OP if I find them interesting?
I am not sure and I could not find anything about the ethical guidelines. A new user recently asked a question, which I've found interesting, as well as others, as it started some discussion, and then ...
11
votes
2answers
332 views
(When) are "career advice" questions on-topic here? If and when such a question is on-topic, what to keep in mind in answering such a question?
We have a tag career and a tag advice. We don't have a flood of questions under these tags, but for several reasons I think it would also be appropriate for us to have a bit more guidance on meta ...
4
votes
1answer
195 views
How are hot meta posts decided?
I'm curious about the exact mechanisms behind the 'hot meta posts' blurb on the right hand side of the main/meta page.
I have been monitoring it for the past few days to see if my recent question ...
10
votes
1answer
309 views
Proposing a change to the close-vote interface
The feature request in this post is at the bottom; I will first highlight why I think it should be implemented. Currently, when I go to close-vote a question I see the following pop-up menu:
If I ...
40
votes
1answer
891 views
2021 Community Moderator Election Results
MathOverflow's second moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the three new moderators are:
They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for ...
3
votes
1answer
215 views
How could I compute my "candidate score"?
I have noticed that, during elections for moderators, the candidates are awarded a "candidate score", computed from their activity on MO.
Is its algorithm public, so that I be able to ...
7
votes
1answer
297 views
Migration of a detailed answer on MathOverflow Meta to Math.SE
Upon reading Professor Hamkins' detailed answer to this recent Question about $i$ versus $-i$ here on MathOverflow Meta, and his accommodating comments:
Oh, I see now that this was a meta question,...
7
votes
2answers
411 views
What are the exact mechanics of the vote for MO moderators?
The election for moderators is currently going on. Three new moderators will be elected.
On the election page you are allowed to rank your choices of the candidates. It is a little unclear whether you ...
10
votes
3answers
450 views
Moderator Elections: bug reporting for new voting UI
As we announced a few weeks ago, there is a new user interface for voting in moderator elections. Math Overflow will be the first Stack Exchange community to use the new UI when voting for your ...
21
votes
3answers
2k views
Question about $i$ versus $-i$
I vaguely recall that some years ago, there was an MO question about how to distinguish between the complex numbers $i$ and $-i$, and in what sense this might be meaningful.
I also recall that I ...
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 ...
8
votes
1answer
363 views
Reason for the 2021 moderator election
There are three possible reasons for having the moderators election this year (with 3 positions to fill):
3 moderators from the current team have decided to step down (for reasons that I consider ...
16
votes
8answers
3k views
2021 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as ...