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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Accepting an answer to a closed question

To my surprise I discovered that I can accept an answer to my question that has been closed. I am not sure whether it is "good" or "bad", my question is whether it is an intended feature and if yes, ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
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Tagging Answers?

Simple question: should the tagging of a question cover answers? Suppose I asked a question about a mathematical problem and in the answers contained for example: pointers to literature algorithms ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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What should I do if I want to ask an almost duplicate question?

There already exists a question very like the one I want to ask, with a very partial answer by the OP. I want to ask the same question but restricted to a special case, for which I hope more can be ...
ChanaG's user avatar
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Migration site list lacks entries

The question What is the integral of temperature over space called? obviously belongs elsewhere. Most probably the proper place is physics.SE, but in any case not here on meta, not on math.SE, and not ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
1 vote
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Should I accept an answer to the "concrete" part of my question and ask another one about the "vague part"?

Suppose I am trying to prove a certain statement $S$ and find that a certain plausible statement $T$ implies $S$. However, I don't think that they are equivalent, and so there are possibly other ...
erz's user avatar
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Can one un-(vote to close) a question without voting to reopen?

Scenario (and it actually happened): I was first to vote to close a question as too broad; OP modified the question in such way that my objection did not apply anymore; this modification resulted in ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
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Why do we need the general-mathematics tag?

I recently came across the general-mathematics tag. It has no usage guidelines, nor do I think it should exist. Do any of you know the historic reasons for its existence, or think it should stay as it ...
Amir Sagiv's user avatar
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Is this combinatorial semigroup theory question suitable for MO?

The question is here. For convenience: Let $S=M_n(\mathbb{Z}_2)$. Let $D^{(n)}_2$ be the matrices in the rank $2$ $\mathcal{D}$-class of $S$. Find $$N_n=\left\lvert\left\{\begin{array} \, e &...
Shaun's user avatar
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Formatting: Diacritics outside of Formulas

I recently tried to write the name of the French mathematician Gâteaux in the correct way, i.e. with a circumflex over the first 'a'. Using MathJax formatting inside inline math or in formula, that ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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Locating a question on zero-one vectors in the kernel of a matrix

I remember there was a question posted to MO about maybe two months ago or so which was, essentially, about the existence of zero-one vectors in the kernel of some matrix. Can anybody help me to ...
Seva's user avatar
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The tags (transcendence) and (transcendental-number-theory)

There exist tags transcendence and transcend.-number-theory (probably shortened from transcendental number theory to fit 25 characters limit for the tag name). At the moment, the tag-info is empty ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
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How to Ask Multiple Very Specific Questions About New Applications of an Old Theorem

This question is a different flavor of this one, the difference being, that I am not looking for help in understanding something. My "problem" is, that while ramping up my knowledge about the ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Can I ask a question here whose answer I did not get at math.stackexchange?

I have asked a question about solution of heat equation at math.stackexchange but no one answered. I think may be the question is too professional to be asked from learners. As this platform is for ...
Ather Cheema's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
293 views

Are we ready for a MathOverflow Overlay?

As varied as my participation in MathOverflow has been, I seem to gravitate towards number-theoretic issues involving $\phi$ and $\sigma$. I am considering writing an overlay article. This would be ...
Gerhard Paseman's user avatar
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586 views

Algebraic Geometry Chat Room

At the request of Denis Nardin, I have started an MO algebraic geometry chat room at http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/23540/algebraic-geometry. For now I am the room owner, but I am happy to let ...
David Benjamin Lim's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
549 views

Risqué and uninformative title.

I found the previous title of Realizing proper pure octonions as conjugates slightly risqué and also uninformative. So in the spirit of being bold I just changed it to something mathematical. I'...
Sam Nead's user avatar
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Reference Requests: Good Ways and Bad Ways

I would like to know of types of bad examples of MathOverflow questions that are tantamount to reference requests. I can think of two: a) A reference request for something that is properly outside ...
Gerhard Paseman's user avatar
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247 views

Preferred Conciseness of Contributions

This is a followup question to Appropriate Reaction to a Failed Reference Request on MO related to Reference Request for Integer factorization with LP/ILP I'm about to prepare an answer that ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Is it appropriate to ask for references and point to a blog with the same question

I wonder if the community would find it appropriate if I ask a question like " Is this or that known? It would be interesting for this and that reason. For details see our blog "blah" where we ask ...
Christian Stump's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
174 views

soft-question tag for discussing mathematical best-practices

I asked a question about where people could store slides for future reference. As a discussion of best-practices in the Mathematical profession, I thought it was appropriate for the soft-question tag ...
john mangual's user avatar
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Too large font in the question names

Previously much more questions could fit one page in the question list. Currently the font is giant and the information is much less dense.
Anixx's user avatar
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Should the dots used in lambda-calculus notation be typographically treated the way binary relation and binary operation symbols are?

Within this question we find the notation $\lambda f . \lambda g . \lambda x.f(g\ x)$, and that causes me to wonder about a point of LaTeX and MathJax usage. The code ...
Michael Hardy's user avatar
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198 views

May I Offer Money to People Who Answer My Question on MathOverflow?

Erdos and others have offered prize money to people who answered their questions. May I offer money to people who answer my questions on MathOverFlow?
Tri's user avatar
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Is deleting posts a good practice?

In principle, MO posts can be cited in papers; on the other hand, MO posts get deleted sometimes. There is a risk, then, of referring a MO post which no longer exists. Is deleting posts a good ...
Iman Mosleh's user avatar
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184 views

Difference between Mathematics SE and MathOverflow

If I post a question that I invented myself on Mathematics SE, I receive comments like "did you do homework?" and, eventually, "why do you ask if you know?". Fair enough. It seems ...
FirstName LastName's user avatar
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0 answers
127 views

Gaining points for posting

How do I earn 50 points to comment if I am not allowed to comment or post? So my problem is as described as far you can see.
Buster Solomon's user avatar
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0 answers
133 views

Is this question about partition numbers too broad/vague?

Here's my proposed question (edit: now posted) (edit 2: posted version now edited): I have found an algorithm for counting partitions, and I've been able to express it into a mathematical formula, $P(...
user1113719's user avatar
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162 views

Asking if a post about a mathematical characterization of gravitational geons can be potentially interesting for the main site MathOverflow

I would like to ask about if a question about the following subject can be potentially interesting and on topic on MathOverflow. I would like to ask on the main site of MathOverflow about the ...
user142929's user avatar
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0 answers
99 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" ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
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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}{\...
geocalc33's user avatar
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"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 ...
user avatar
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0 answers
230 views

Discouraging (Some) Upvotes

I'm tagging this as "discussion", not as a feature request, because I am quite agnostic about whether it's a good idea. That said: My subjective impression is that lately a lot of very bad/...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
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Can I ask for advice or opinions about the choice of a variant of a theory?

Basically, I have 2 versions of a theory. This is like having two competing theories of complex numbers, one where $i^2=-1$ and the other where $j^2=1$ (hyperbolic numbers) or extending reals with $+\...
Anixx's user avatar
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426 views

Why did my profile picture disappear?

I discovered few days ago that my profile picture is gone, had to reupload it. Did anybody else encounter this? Do you know the reason?
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
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0 answers
186 views

I want to answer a closed question

Please reopen this question: A problem of an infinite number of balls and an urn I have a nice answer. (Added (DR): now re-opened. Please note there are ten deleted nonsense answers, which I imagine ...
Anixx's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
109 views

Can I delete one of my posts that has been closed as off topic and received an answer with positive up-vote?

Can I delete one of my posts that has been closed as off topic and received an answer with positive up-vote? Should I delete all my posts that has been closed as off topic? (with/out answer)
C.F.G's user avatar
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0 answers
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Would asking this question be permissible on the main site?

I have been working on a problem for days, that I previously mentioned on ComScience StackExchange. The answers were helpful. But, I need more information to develop a polynomial space algorithm. I ...
Travis Wells's user avatar
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0 answers
137 views

Need details or clarity

I need some help to understand what is unclear with my question A reform of logic to secure naive set theory? and also what details are missing, from other persons perspective.
Lehs's user avatar
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0 answers
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Is my question for Math Overflow?

In the first paragraph of Prove or Disprove this Darboux-like sum of a function defined on infinite limit points converges to zero, I state that I do not know whether this is a research question. Is ...
Arbuja's user avatar
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0 answers
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Setting up math Q/A site in foreign language

Now that my college shifted to online education because of the coronavirus, I would like to setup a MathOverflow style site in Hungarian where I could post exercises, and students could comment, post ...
domotorp's user avatar
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0 answers
119 views

A questions about "on hold" status of a question and about "closed" status

I have a question that´s been put "on hold". And I have some questions. Who can see that this question is "on hold"? Can that see all users of the site or even some people who ...
Grešnik's user avatar
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0 answers
104 views

MO links chopped in gmail pdf viewer

Currently I am preparing the text for a paper (together with two coauthors) where we cite help from MO on two occasions. I am doing this using the cite button. It ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
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0 answers
67 views

Is it bad practice to edit my own question with details from the paper provided in the top answer?

I asked a question and received a helpful answer that showed me work that I did not know how to search for. The answer was a link to the author's paper and some context on its relevance. While I could ...
Matt Cuffaro's user avatar
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0 answers
97 views

reminder for comments/responses

Suppose a user commented on my post and due to some reason I overlooked and then forgot. As it is my question, the one who responded for my question would not care to write another comment if I do ...
Praphulla Koushik's user avatar
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0 answers
168 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
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0 votes
0 answers
71 views

Would this question be on topic?

I'm independently working on some research, and would like to see if there are any other papers on this topic. Can I ask a question on the main site, with a brief description of my work, to see what ...
CDspace's user avatar
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0 answers
117 views

Is this post incompatible with its tags?

Is the following question incompatible with its tags? I really do not understand the reason that some participants voted to closing this question as off topic question: PhD dissertations that ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
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0 answers
53 views

What if I want to increase bounty by somebody else?

I found an exciting question that somebody gave bounty of 50, and I would like to increase it. Seems there is no way to do it. Why? Also, I never tried this so I don't know: can I increase my own ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
116 views

"Singular Perturbation" is not among tags

Can I ask MO to define a new tag "Singular perturbation". I did not find this tag among the tag list. Thank you
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
107 views

Another close reason: "subsumed"?

This happened few hours ago: the question Series involving gamma function about the sum of a specific series, probably not research level, was followed by another one, Series involving factorials ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar

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