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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My question has already been asked, but not really answered? What should I do?
I have a question I am curious about: call it $Q$.
There exists a posted question $P$ on MO which asks my question $Q$. More precisely, $P$ states a series of (slightly vague) questions, one of ...
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Redundant ways to close as off-topic/better on MSE [duplicate]
Right now, there are 4 ways to vote to close a question as off-topic.
"This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center."
"...
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Extending questions and answers gradually
If someone answers my question and I want to generalize it, how should I do it? Is it ok to gradually extend my question as answers improve? An answer to a question I wanted to ask may show me that I ...
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What to do about question which are inappropriately migrated from MSE to MO?
This question has been migrated from MSE by a moderator as well as closed for being off-topic. As I recall, MSE consider to have in principle a scope that encompasses the scope of MO (i.e. all math ...
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MathOverflow @ ICM2014 : We Want You!
This post will raise several questions/issues on which I want
community feedback.
Background: Inspired by Tim Post's offer
Mugs, Stickers And Shirts - Now With 100% More MathOverflow! , I++ decided ...
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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. ...
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"Questions" of the type "I have written something, please give me feedback"
I have now today seen several questions (this and this)
which asks for feedback on research articles, rather than stating explictit questions.
There is of course a gray zone, but I wonder a bit what ...
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Couldn't the comment vote rate limitation be made more ergonomic?
Quite often I read a comment thread, and then decide which comments I vote up.
As soon as this is more than one comment, I get an error message
that I can cast only one comment vote every 5 seconds. --...
Stefan KohlMod
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Closing as duplicate
Many things changed when MathOverflow joined the Stack Exchange Network a year ago. While most changes were quickly absorbed a few are more subtle and might have been missed by some. In particular, ...
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Elementary questions
Is there any reason for answers like "Too elementary/trivial", "Not research level" and so forth?
I understand what the level of this site is, but at times it would take 3 minutes to give a proper ...
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Is this question appropriate? (What features should a mathematician look for in a tablet computer)
I'm getting ready to buy my first tablet computer and I have some fairly specific things I need it to be able to do so that it can be an effective tool for my research. I need it to be able to compile ...
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Play the game: an observation about the reputation [closed]
MO is a nice Q&A network. Its niceness comes partly from the fact that it's funny, thanks to the existence of the reputation points. Normally, mature mathematicians shouldn't need a system with ...
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Criteria of considering relevance of the question to the domain of research topics
Please look at
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/175757/conjecture-related-to-distinct-unique-permutations-of-digits.
In my view, it is clearly a specific research question - it is not a general ...
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Why was the question about "expected difference of random variables" put on hold?
As I explained in the answer to the question The metric of the expected difference of random variables, I don't see any reason for closing it other than simple misunderstanding (to put it mildly) on ...
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Quickly Accessible MathJax Help
I recently had the problem of encoding big brackets in a formula in my question "Functions that Calculate their $L_p$ Norm" and, I could find nothing under "How to Format > MathJax equations", as the ...
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Formulas in the title of the questions
Why don't many of the people who ask a question in MO use math environment for their formulas in the title of the questions?
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Why is this question considered undergraduate?
The question https://mathoverflow.net/questions/173132/number-of-combinations-of-ordered-sequences-of-n-integers is closed because it is considered "undergraduate"... could someone explain me how in ...
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Should/may I delete this flawed question?
Two days ago I asked the following question: Does a lisse $\ell$-adic sheaf give rise to an affine group scheme?
Even though I had been thinking about the question for half a week, I was half an hour ...
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migration issues
I dealt with two questions today that seemed on the more elementary side in terms of
mathematical content. Geoff Robinson posted some interesting answers, more so than
my attempts. Coincidentally, ...
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asking questions outside of field of expertise
MathOverflow + Math.StackExchanage are great resources for learning and talking about mathematics. Often, I can get constructive and informative discussions leading to progress.
MathOverflow is a ...
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Why has the question "Optical methods for number theory?" been closed?
Edit: The MO question has now been reopened, and the two answers here that addressed it have been copied across.
The question Optical methods for number theory? was put on hold. While answers are ...
user25199
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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 ...
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Is there an option to know when somebody (especially author of the post) does something after my comment?
Yes I do realize that the comments are primarily meant to introduce improvements in the post being commented on. And also that if any subsequent commenters want my feedback, they will @ me explicitly. ...
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On a question that was deleted recently.
I noticed that yesterday a question that received many upvotes (>40) and no downvotes, and which mathematically seems quite interesting was deleted by a Stack Exchange Moderator. I definitely don't ...
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I think I solved an old problem, can someone please check it for me?
Sorry if this is inappropriate to ask on meta, but back in April I updated an old answer of mine that is over two years old here, on the existence of a zero sum subset problem. I suspect due to how ...
user49545
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Grassmann's "general theory of forms": an appropriate question for MathOverflow?
The prospective question:
I quote from Petsche's Hermann Graßmann: Biography (emphasis mine):
The mathematical part of the book begins with the conception of the “General Theory of Forms”. ...
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Area 51 Proposal: Sage and its subcomponents
I proposed a Q&A site for Sage and all its subcomponents viz. GAP, Pari, Singular, Sympy, ... on Area51 here. I thought many mathematicians here who use Sage in their research and teaching here ...
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When and how to post a question on scicomp.stackexchange.com
I have recently posted the following question on MO:
"Approximation with Predefined Topology of Niveau Sets", which received close to zero attention.
Igor Khavkine was so kind to make me aware of ...
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the correct way to "cross-post"?
Obviously is to not cross-post at all. If I asked a question on Math.SE the crickets chirp, how do I move it to MO? Or rephrase in an acceptable way?
I think we've all done it one or twice asked a ...
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Vote to reopen question regarding connected and total domination on the queen's graph
[Note: Now reopened!]
The question concerns the limit as $n\to\infty$ of $\gamma_t(Q_n)/n$. It is known to be between $\frac{4}{7}$ and $\frac{2}{3}$.
As connected and total domination the queen'...
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Interpretation of Time-limit for Editing Comments
Yesterday I had written a comment and, after 4 minutes began editing it.
After having finished my editing, I tried to save the comment and was prompted with the message, that editing is only possible ...
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How can I convince mathematicians that my question on Fourier transforms and singularities is very important to be solved and it is worth their time
How can I convince mathematicians that this question is very important to be solved and it is worth their time. This question has practical applications, but I don't know the right procedure/forum to ...
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Should a small math journal move to associate with a big publishing house today? [closed]
I am an assistant editor of the math journal published by our department. This is a small journal, circa 15 years old, with two issues each year, and impact factor close to zero. Usually, my main job ...
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On the question about a strengthening of Bertrand's postulate
I am trying to work out what I think about the suitability of this question. The author is in a very real and awkward situation: His$^{\ast}$ graduate student has a result. The result is not that ...
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Is it frowned upon to answer a question and vote to close?
Is it frowned upon to answer a question and vote to close it? I did this for
MO166234 and received this comment from a high-rep user:
...
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What about the question "Hint for the Elementary Proof of the Inequality of Prime Numbers"?
See the link https://mathoverflow.net/q/165492/48849.
I think that my question (actually it is not originally my question, it is from someone on the AoPS) might suggest us to prove the Bertrand's ...
user48849
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An Introduction to Suspension Theory [closed]
Inspired by Konrad's last post I would like to start a discussion thread on some possible aspects of long time/permanent suspensions.
"Konrad" is a pseudonymous name for a long time suspended user. ...
user50633
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What about the question "does Grothendieck have any pseudonymous paper"
There is a beginning of close war about that question. It has 25 votes, just got closed, but has already 3 "reopen" votes only three hours after it was closed.
Only quiz has given in comments a reason ...
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Double-counting reputation for migrated questions
Last month I answered a question on MO, which was later migrated to MSE. Upon migration, the up/down votes for my answer were migrated from MO to MSE. That makes sense. What I find strange is that ...
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Is asking a question on the applicability of cellular automata to solving PDEs on closed curves appropriate?
Being a low rep user who is somewhat unfamiliar with the workings of this site, I would appreciate it if I could get some feedback on a question I am considering asking. It would be a reference ...
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Are there ways to lessen amount of "bad" questions?
Not so easy to formulate what I want to ask...
Lots of questions on MO are being (sort of) rejected as more appropriate for SE or not belonging here in some other way. Not only does this distract ...
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Questions on Coq
Now I'm awake again, I can raise this here in meta, as per quid's request.
I commented on the question How do I verify the Coq proof of Feit-Thompson?
I like this question, and would defend it ...
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Tag excerpt/wiki for computational topology
On MSE I am working on a tag excerpt/wiki for a currently non-existing computational topology tag. Please see this post on MSE Meta:
https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/13511/tag-creation-...
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Are professional Physicists, Computer Scientists, Engineers, Economists... not allowed to ask questions at MO?
"MathOverflow is a question and answer site for professional mathematicians."
May other professional researchers ask questions at MO? Should they check their credentials at the door?
If not, and ...
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Why was "Is it meaningful to work on convergencies, integration, etc. on the Zariski topology?" closed?
This post is about the question Is it meaningful to work on convergencies, integration, etc. on the Zariski topology? It is an interesting, relevant question which attracted two excellent answers. The ...
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History of Math and Science SE is in commit stage
This is to announce that the History of Math and Science StackExchange proposal on Area 51 has entered the "commit" stage. You can read more about the proposal here and see the proposal itself here.
...
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Why doesn't "browse the complete list of questions" continue with next questions?
I always wonder (and find it anoying) that, when I reached the end of the first page of questions and click on "browse the complete list of questions", I find myself at the beginning of the first page ...
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Modified by Community
The frontpage currently has six questions that were modified by Community:
Does anyone know what modifications were made and why?
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Formatting a citation to a MathOverflow answer
What's a good way to format a citation to a MathOverflow post in a paper?
Here is a first draft (with hyperlink, and assuming it's reference number 16, say), but maybe people can think of ...
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Reference to Mathoverflow
I feel a bit awkward, but my question is this: Someone asked questions on Mathoverflow and I gave answers. The whole thing was not very deep and I could provide rather standard examples to show ...
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