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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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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 ...
jmc's user avatar
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13 votes
0 answers
433 views

Asking exactly what you need

If you compare my remarks in Do partitions of unity exist if we impose additional conditions on the derivatives? and Exponential sums you'll see that the problem and my request were exactly the ...
fedja's user avatar
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13 votes
0 answers
358 views

MathOverflow Weekly Newsletter / Greatest hits from previous weeks

I don't know how many look at the MathOverflow Weekly Newsletter, but these were the "Greatest hits from previous weeks": "Video lectures of mathematics courses available online for free" from Feb ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
330 views

Will MO have Community Promotion Ads?

Community Promotion Ads seem to be a useful tool for helping spread various links that might be useful for users of the site. I have mostly encountered them at MSE. I have learned several ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
13 votes
0 answers
432 views

Use of arXiv tags

When MathOverflow began we decided to start using arXiv classification and created corresponding tags. These are still the most broadly used tags on MathOverflow. However, the usage of some these tags ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
484 views

New Stack Exchange site 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 Stack Exchange site is like in its initial beginnings, want to help ...
Nike Dattani's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
431 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 ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 55.4k
12 votes
0 answers
249 views

Retroactively add linked questions

Any question on MathOverflow (or other Stack Exchange site) shows the list of linked questions in the sidebar on the right. A question is added there if there is a link between the two questions ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
392 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
12 votes
0 answers
423 views

Removal of the "symplectic" tag

There is a symplectic tag on MO that currently contains just two questions. The first question so tagged dates from March 26 2017, so this makes this tag at least 1 year and 4 months old. I believe ...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,065
12 votes
0 answers
244 views

Tag for errata of books

Navigating MO, it is possible to view two kinds of questions regarding errors within a book. The first kind are community-wiki questions which answers are a collaborative listing of found errors in a ...
Tadashi's user avatar
  • 1,532
12 votes
0 answers
343 views

OpenScience Q&A just went live

Perhaps you are aware of the fact that there was an Open Science private beta at StackExchange that did not quite manage to develop enough traction so it was closed down recently. Some people want to ...
user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
517 views

2% of viewers vote?

Maybe this is not possible to quantize accurately, but might it be the case that Q. Approximately 2% of those who view a posting on MO vote +/- on the question? That's approximately true for my ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
1k views

Why is my question apparently not research-level?

I just posted this question a few hours ago, and it's already had two votes to close for being off-topic (i.e., not of "research-level mathematics"). Considering it's ultimately a question about ...
Kieren MacMillan's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
635 views

Is the following question on paper-writing etiquette appropriate for MO?

I'm wondering if it would be appropriate to ask a soft question on MO regarding mathematical etiquette. In more detail, I'm writing a paper that cites a well-known paper in my field, but I've been ...
Chuck Hague's user avatar
  • 3,597
12 votes
0 answers
190 views

Remove substantial tag score requirement for suggesting tag synonyms?

I have recently attempted to create the obvious tag synonym 'dg-algebras' <--- 'differential-graded-algeb'. However, my attempt was thwarted by the system's insistence that I need five total score (...
Ricardo Andrade's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
354 views

To which extent should spam posts on meta be considered a problem?

MathOverflow is one of the few sites in the Stack Exchange network where users with reputation 1 can post on meta.1 Clearly, this has some advantages2 and some disadvantages. Probably one of the ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
360 views

Keeping a question on track or allowing people to chime in with stuff they'd like to mention?

I am slightly unhappy with the direction of drift to answers to this question. On my reading, the OP mentioned a phenomenon and asked how editors should react to it. This seems to have been taken by ...
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 24.8k
11 votes
0 answers
265 views

New community close vote reason

While doing some cleanup on the home page just now, I noticed that we have a new community specific reason to close. The second option in the list is new, and leaves me slightly confused. While I ...
Alec Rhea's user avatar
  • 8,294
11 votes
0 answers
385 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 ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 18k
11 votes
0 answers
388 views

Utility of Mathematics: Is this question appropriate here, and if not/if so, how can I phrase it better?

I would like to know if this question is appropriate for Math Overflow, and if so, how I can phrase it better to get the best results. Question: I recently spoke with a very nice mathematician who ...
trujello's user avatar
  • 101
11 votes
0 answers
346 views

Role of the tag "gm.general-mathematics"

This question is about the tag gm.general-mathematics. A meta question about it already occurred here, but was less specific (and didn't generate much discussion). See also the discussion in the ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 56.2k
11 votes
0 answers
326 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 ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
543 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 ...
J W's user avatar
  • 738
11 votes
0 answers
531 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 ...
YCor's user avatar
  • 56.2k
11 votes
0 answers
346 views

One more reason to reject an edit: too much alteration

I encountered this now, and have seen it quite frequently before: I would like to reject an edit, and the reason is something between "attempt to reply" and "clearly conflicts with author's intent". ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
589 views

Learn from my mistake

The question "What is the spin connection in 9 dimensions as opposed to 5 dimensions?" received two down votes. I would like to know what I can do to improve the quality of this question. Thank you ...
linuxfreebird's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
376 views

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 ...
knsam's user avatar
  • 1,117
11 votes
0 answers
258 views

Quick or easy methods to post math or diagrams on chat

One of the seeming obstacles to having scheduled informal seminars on chat is the extra work, probably mostly for the leader of the discussion (should there be one), in presenting ideas on the chat ...
Will Jagy's user avatar
  • 24.9k
10 votes
0 answers
532 views

Rationale for reputation change on "my" reputation page that says 'User was removed'

At MathOverflow > Help center > Reputation & Moderation I see the following: [...] a user who voted for one of your posts had their account deleted (either by request or due to violating ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
540 views

Bounty awarded to an immediately deleted answer

Something peculiar has just happened. A week ago a 300 point bounty has been added to this question (I think its content is hardly relevant to this meta question) [note: the bounty was added by a user ...
Wojowu's user avatar
  • 25.9k
10 votes
0 answers
306 views

What should you do if you find old duplicates?

Sometimes I discover that "old" MO questions are duplicates of even older MO questions. Two examples: Embarrassingly, I found out that my own question: Formula for number of permutations ...
Sam Hopkins's user avatar
  • 20.7k
10 votes
0 answers
340 views

What to do with the synonyms for the deprecated tags?

Recently, the following tag synonyms were created by a MathOveflow moderator: abstract-algebra $\to$ ra.rings-and-algebras, geometry $\to$ mg.metric-geometry and discrete-mathematics $\to$ co....
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
697 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
10 votes
0 answers
587 views

Question mysteriously deleted

I answered a question earlier today. It asked something like for an element $g$ of a free group, does there exist a finite-index subgroup of the free group such that g is a basis element of the ...
Andy Putman's user avatar
  • 41.3k
10 votes
0 answers
554 views

Probability question migrated to stats.stackexchange

What has happened to the following question?: https://mathoverflow.net/posts/202242/revisions Firstly, it looks like a reasonable question to me (although the notation could be improved). Why was it ...
James Martin's user avatar
  • 3,695
10 votes
0 answers
410 views

Is it appropriate to post question asking to prove NP-completness of more than one problem?

I believe that I discovered a method to generate several NP-complete problems. The NP-completeness proof is not immediately apparent to me. I did not find any reference in complexity literature to my ...
Mohammad Al-Turkistany's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
963 views

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 ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
261 views

When reviewing suggested edits, cancel rejection and approval votes

I have seen many edit suggestions approved which I consider to be minor edits to old posts (which bump them to the front page), or to actually reduce the quality or readability of the post. Other ...
Ricardo Andrade's user avatar
10 votes
0 answers
587 views

On "How does the work of a pure mathematician impact society?"

The question How does the work of a pure mathematician impact society? was originally quickly closed, relatively quickly reopened, after a longer time closed again and has at the time of this edit a ...
user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
282 views

New tag for "stochastic partial differential equations" (SPDEs)

Since there are separate tags for a) ODEs, ca.classical-analysis-and-odes and differential-equations and for b) ap.analysis-of-pdes but only one tag for stochastic-differential-equations, I was ...
Thomas Kojar's user avatar
  • 2,840
9 votes
0 answers
307 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 ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
347 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 ...
J. van Dobben de Bruyn's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
236 views

Should delete votes add a post to the low quality posts review queue?

Presently, unlike "Very Low Quality" flags, delete votes do not add a post to the "Low Quality Posts" review queue. -- Should they?
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 18.7k
9 votes
0 answers
821 views

Probable Homework

This post asks for the solution of a problem subject to various artificial constraints of the sort that frequently arise in homework problems. When asked repeatedly why he wants to impose these ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
279 views

Is this question appropriate for MO? (Instability of Newton basins of polynomials at multiple roots)

About a year ago I asked on MO when a Newton basin fractal is continuously determined by the roots of its polynomial. I mentioned in that question that I had convinced myself that the roots of the ...
Aaron Golden's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
490 views

Questions on Mathematical Writing

Where should I ask about how to approach Mathematical paper writing? For example, the question [How to write an abstract for a math paper? ] was put on hold? Which stack exchange site should I have ...
Halbort's user avatar
  • 1,119
9 votes
0 answers
495 views

Suitability about a question on amenability of Thompsons group $F$

I was wondering if a question along the lines of the following would be appropriate for MO: An open problem that seems to get a lot of attention every once in a while is the amenability of ...
Tobias Kildetoft's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
696 views

Why this is off-topic?

I posted a question on MSE for two months and received no helpful answer. So I tried the same question on MO. I got 4 off-topic votes and so the question got migrated back to MSE. I'd like to mention ...
Troy Woo's user avatar
  • 163
9 votes
0 answers
634 views

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 ...
R W's user avatar
  • 16.1k