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.

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14 votes
1 answer
618 views

Using bounty to prevent a question from being closed

There is a recent question Which universities teach true infinitesimal calculus? , suitability of which has been questioned by several users [I personally do not see in this question anything related ...
R W's user avatar
  • 16.6k
14 votes
1 answer
657 views

Why can't we close questions that have a bounty?

I just cast the 5th vote to close the question Was Cauchy so obstinate?, but the system said that it's impossible to close a question with an open bounty. It seems to me that this question is ...
David White's user avatar
  • 29.4k
14 votes
1 answer
700 views

FAQ on typesetting of formulae hard to find

You might have all noticed that https://mathoverflow.net/help/formatting does not mention (La)TeX. I believe this is a very important topic and should not be hidden in "advanced"; actually, a link ...
Dima Pasechnik's user avatar
14 votes
7 answers
1k views

2013 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 ...
Grace Note's user avatar
  • 101
13 votes
14 answers
3k views

2013 Moderator Nominations [closed]

The purpose of this thread was to allow users to nominate others. The nomination period is now over and the thread is closed. The list of candidates can be found on the election page. Since the Stack ...
13 votes
2 answers
661 views

Companies accounts allowed?

The following account looks like some kind of SEO trick. https://mathoverflow.net/users/106607/nilead-web-design-company It doesn't seem that I can flag accounts for moderator attention, hence this ...
coudy's user avatar
  • 18.5k
12 votes
1 answer
300 views

MathJax on Chat

Is there MathJax support on the chat?
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 38.1k
12 votes
0 answers
396 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 ...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 101
11 votes
1 answer
581 views

Are edits performed by external, non-SE robots allowed?

During my reviewing of Suggested Edits, I have encountered several of them attempted by user @Glorfindel. Upon closer examination, all were performed by a robot written by him and all consisted of ...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,207
11 votes
1 answer
504 views

Apologies re image links update => bumping

In the days before StackExchange used i.stack.imgur.com for images, I had linked quite a few images to my college's web server. Now all those links are broken, and I will eventually move them to i....
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
531 views

Could we add another reason for closing that's more appropriate for "check this (dis)proof of RH"-type questions?

I wanted to vote to close this question which claims to disprove the Riemann Hypothesis, but I realized that, even though we get questions of this kind occasionally, none of the reasons to close is ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 29.9k
11 votes
2 answers
906 views

Where to share MathOverflow success stories?

We had an old thread about this at tea.mathoverflow.net but this is not the most obvious place for that. Where should we keep track of cool success stories like this recent gold nugget? Update: The ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
699 views

2018: a year in moderation

Good morning, all! I'm a Community Manager here at Stack Exchange; some of you might remember me from classic answers such as a temporary change now approaching 6 years live and a list of possibly ...
Shog9's user avatar
  • 101
9 votes
4 answers
868 views

Are research questions in MSC 97 (Mathematics education) allowed on MO?

Check AMS Mathematics Subject Classification, you will find the 2 digit classification "97" for mathematics education. Thus it seems that It is allowed to ask mathematics education research questions ...
Amir Asghari's user avatar
  • 2,277
9 votes
6 answers
393 views

Custom 'off-topic' reasons to close

Splitting off the first item from the main 6. Currently, the 'off-topic' reasons are: This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics, within the scope defined in the help center....
François G. Dorais's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
278 views

Should tag-wiki include a source where it is taken from?

The main purpose of the tag-info (and especially the tag-excerpt) is to help with tagging. This is especially important for the tags with ambiguous name. But usually tag-info also contains some brief ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
232 views

'Tag-removed' tags where they possibly shouldn't be

See Why is differentiating mechanics and integration art? Which functions of one variable are derivatives ? both of which are tagged [tag-removed]. Also, both of these seem to have had these tags ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.8k
7 votes
0 answers
308 views

2020: 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 past 12 months. As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange network ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 101
7 votes
1 answer
169 views

Custom closing link looks too much like it should be a migrate to MSE link [duplicate]

Currently, one of the custom off-topic closing reasons is: MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ask general questions ...
Benjamin Steinberg's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
126 views

Editing of the help center and about

Try to add some meat to the on topic page. Also, in the about page, you can edit the site target audience, the example question, and the bullet points that define what to ask about/what not to ask ...
Manishearth's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
513 views

"Silent" Edits for MO?

This question is inspired by Do we have an unofficial quota on how many old questions one should bump for minor edits in a single day? Wouldn't it make sense, to have the choice of a "silent" ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.6k
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

User retention rates on MathOverflow

A two-input table : First input : number of users with more than $500, 1000, 2500, 5000$ or $10000$ reputation points. Second input : number of users not seen for more than $1/12, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2$ or $...
Sebastien Palcoux's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
156 views

What's the difference between two off-topic flags? [duplicate]

I'm sure that this is somewhere on MMO, but my searching hasn't turned it up. When I flag a question as off-topic, two of the options that I am given are "This question does not appear to be about ...
LSpice's user avatar
  • 11.3k
2 votes
0 answers
232 views

Why was this question made community wiki?

Yesterday I asked a question seeking published references studying popular games, to start building up an undergraduate research program. Today I woke up to find it had been made community wiki. Now, ...
David White's user avatar
  • 29.4k
0 votes
0 answers
171 views

Should there be Anonymous Comments?

I currently got a downvote for my question Making a Graph Eulerian for Applying TSP Heuristics, but unfortunately the downvoter didn't leave a comment explaining what the motivation was, thus ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.6k
-14 votes
1 answer
382 views

Can anyone learn anything from a downvote without an accompanying rationale in a comment?

I have been on enough web boards in both the arts and sciences that I have learned not to be bothered by downvotes in and of themselves. What does bother me is a downvote without an accompanying ...
David Halitsky's user avatar
118 votes
23 answers
9k views

MO-Hard Questions

The term "MO-Hard" has entered the mathematical vocabulary, describing interesting questions that were asked on MathOverflow but haven't been answered in spite of efforts by many community members. ...
116 votes
2 answers
3k views

Anton's departure as moderator

Does outgoing moderator Anton Geraschenko deserve our heartfelt thanks, or what?
Tom Leinster's user avatar
  • 27.2k
85 votes
3 answers
2k views

Should this site be "a shortcut to substitute for literature searches"?

On Reference for invariance of essential spectrum under relatively compact perturbations, Michael Renardy voted to close with the comment "This site should not become a shortcut to substitute for ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
67 votes
7 answers
8k views

At what point should MO recognise it needs to leave Stack Exchange Inc?

Edit Please note this is not me posting with my moderator hat on (I've signed the letter), and I didn't discuss this with the mod team before posting this. It's not within shouting distance of being ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.8k
58 votes
2 answers
3k views

Mugs, Stickers And Shirts - Now With 100% More MathOverflow!

The MathOverflow Foundation has given Stack Exchange permission to print and ship (at our expense) free gifts for outstanding users of the site that want them, or that will be attending conferences ...
Tim Post's user avatar
  • 101
56 votes
1 answer
2k views

Deleted answered question / arXiv posts based on unacknowledged MO posts

I'd like to mention here two possibly related facts: (a) Soon after this question was answered, there was an arXiv paper posted providing the same answer (b) Soon after this closely related ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 60.1k
56 votes
4 answers
7k views

Flood of Similar New User(s)

The following thirteen(!) users: goingfullscheme valua_aint_no_galois going-full-isomorphic logicians_rule, martintzar royalroadtogeometry bundlist compactbut faptoint you_dont_mess_with_ron ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
56 votes
5 answers
11k views

What happened to the dear user "quid" (9072), they appear deleted?

What happened to the dear user "quid" (9072), they appear deleted? Noticed this by edits I remember were from them. Google still remembers them and the user page of user number 9072 returns 404 (...
joro's user avatar
  • 24.2k
51 votes
2 answers
2k views

Formatting citations to the literature on MathOverflow

We'd like to make it easier to cite articles from the literature, on MathOverflow. I propose adding a single button to the edit toolbar while writing posts, which will pop up a search dialog, allow ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
46 votes
2 answers
1k views

arXiv vs MathOverflow - popularity of disciplines

Inspired by the comparison of programming languages by GitHub and Stack Overflow activity (e.g. this one for 2015) I decided to look at the popularity of mathematical disciplines by using data from ...
Piotr Migdal's user avatar
  • 1,592
40 votes
0 answers
1k views

Moderation strike update 2

There has been movement at the station. Reposting an update on how the negotiations are going from this answer on meta.StackExchange, which also gives details on other updates over the past fortnight. ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.8k
39 votes
4 answers
2k views

A StackExchange website aimed at graduate students?

There has been a lot of discussion about questions that do not get answered on MSE, but are not considered 'research level' on MO and thus get closed. The problem seems to be that certain questions ...
R. van Dobben de Bruyn's user avatar
37 votes
4 answers
924 views

Improving citations of MathOverflow posts

There are already a lot of citations of MathOverflow in the literature. Nevertheless, there is some resistance in the greater mathematical community since MathOverflow is not a traditional medium. ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
35 votes
3 answers
1k views

Creating a "math.SE needs your help" thread

From time to time questions get asked on math.SE which may be quite suitable for MO. Given the current climate of math.SE, such questions may not receive the attention they are due: e.g., they ...
user642796's user avatar
35 votes
4 answers
2k views

Answers in comments are increasingly more common

I have checked a random sample of questions in the main page, and it seems that almost every one of them has some form of answer in the comments, apart from completely unanswered/untouched ones. This ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
33 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is MO connected?

Is it the case that MO is actually split into several communities which only communicate with each other through meta-activity but have no actual mathematical interests in common? This is not sheer ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
32 votes
1 answer
606 views

Potential "technical" obstacle to migrations, and suggestion for a solution

Practical advice: If you want to/vote to migrate something to another site (especially math.SE) please make sure that at least one of the tags on the question exists on the target site (math.SE). ...
user avatar
31 votes
10 answers
3k views

What MO is for and what is *your* aim in participation?

Q1: What is your view on the purpose, aims and benefits of MO? Q2: What are your specific aim, targets and benefits in participation at MO?
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.2k
29 votes
6 answers
1k views

MathOverflow at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, January 2014

The 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings will be held January 15-18, 2014 in Baltimore, with hundreds thousands of mathematicians attending. It happens that I plan to attend, and since I'd enjoy going to ...
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
29 votes
3 answers
3k views

Celebrity usernames

The question "naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties" (naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties) recently received an apparently useful answer from a user with the name "...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
  • 22.7k
28 votes
1 answer
897 views

MO in the Notices of the AMS

On page 333 of the March 2010 issue, John Baez wrote that "MathOverflow has become a universal clearinghouse for math questions." The March 2017 issue features an interview with Prof. Ken Ribet--the ...
José Hdz. Stgo.'s user avatar
26 votes
7 answers
3k views

Should we have new moderator elections?

Mathoverflow has seven moderators, but many of them seem to be inactive (at least from the point of view of an unprivileged user): for instance, they are not active on meta, and they moderated few ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
25 votes
5 answers
2k views

Updated: 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 ...
Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine's user avatar
25 votes
5 answers
1k views

Community Peer-Review in Mathoverflow

I was recently surfing around the Physicsoverflow and I have to admit I was impressed by their Review section. I could not help myself from thinking how -and if- such a feature could also be ...
Konstantinos Kanakoglou's user avatar

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