Questions tagged [etiquette]
This tag is aimed for discussions about etiquette: how to behave on the site and the chat.
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Do we have an unofficial quota on how many old questions one should bump for minor edits in a single day?
I noticed tonight that a well-intentioned user has been doing a lot of minor edits of formatting of old questions with the effect of filling most of the active question list with old questions bumped ...
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Editing etiquette
What are some general guidelines for editing a MathOverflow post? Are there some "do"s and "don't"s I should know about?
(The material that was previously in this question box has been moved to an ...
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What should be the policy on "open problems" on MO?
The subject of this discussion are questions on "open problems" on MO.
There is an existing policy on "open problems" reproduced from the (old) FAQs, which involves an open-problem tag.
The ...
user9072
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Using Math Overflow to check whether or not a proof is correct
A user named Jürgen Böhm recently posted two questions which boiled down to checking whether or not his proof is correct. I left a comment on the second one saying that I don't think this is ...
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Questions answered in a comment
It may happen that a question has zero answers, but is actually already answered satisfactorily in a comment. An example is this question.
I think this is somewhat misleading, as the "0 answers" ...
Stefan KohlMod
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On using MathJax to create 'white space'
The purpose of this post is, first, to raise awareness (as this, reasonably, might not be clear) that the way some (and it seems to me the number is growing) use MathJax to create 'white space' (or to ...
user9072
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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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Dealing with possible incorrectness
I have seen a few responses on MO that I think are either incorrect or possibly incorrect.
What is the best way to draw attention to possible incorrectness?
(I provide two examples below; if this is ...
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Answering not research level questions
I just commented the solution to a question that was obviously not research level. Then I deleted the solution again since providing it might encourage people to again asking such questions.
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"This question has been answered in the comments."
Athanagor Wurlitzer has recently been adding answers saying "This question has been answered in the comments" (see, e.g. https://mathoverflow.net/a/156051/3).
I'm inclined to delete these answers (...
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How to discourage excessive self-edits?
My question is prompted by the reappearance of this post on the front page. A glance at the edit history shows that the OP has edited his own question thirteen times. This user has a history of ...
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Community standard for contacting users off of MO?
If a user is using their full name as their user name, what, if any, is the community standard with regards to emailing that user using their independently found work email address about their ...
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Some proposals for modifications of the process of closing/reopening questions
I wish to make a modest proposal on closing/reopening questions. Let me begin by noting that by far the most frequent reviews are Close votes -- almost 37,000, and looking quickly most of the close ...
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MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name
I have noticed just now that a user has chosen as pseudonym "Alexander Grothendieck", which I'm a bit unconfortable with (the probability that it is also that user's name is extremely low, hence my ...
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Do your own homework
Occasionally, we get questions on main taken from old contests, such as Olympiads and Putnam exams. These questions are inappropriate for MO, and they get closed, which is as it should be. However, ...
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On the recent question "Is Euclid dead?", or: Is it considered good practice to use MathOverflow for a campaign?
Yesterday, a question entitled Is Euclid dead? has been asked
in which the OP states:
"Currently I am leading a campaign for the return of EG to the syllabus
of the high schools of my country (...
Stefan KohlMod
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Should I delete my own question if it turns out trivial after a comment?
I had not given this question enough thought before asking it. I went straight to looking for a reference without thinking about it. Somebody pointed out the obvious solution in a comment. Should I ...
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Altering the question in a way that makes an answer obsolete
I've seen that several times: an answer makes OP want to change the question in a way that would damage the answer. Obviously this should not be done. In fact I think it is better to delete the ...
- 17.9k
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Is it good practice to write "@someone" in a question?
On SE and on the old MO have seen @someone in a question.
Probably this notifies someone in his inbox and draws
his attention (which is the goal).
Does it really ...
- 25.2k
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Would it be appropriate to ask why a new user chose MO over MSE?
With the move to Stack Exchange 2.0, some people feel that there will be (have been?) many more first time users asking questions on MO which should instead be asked on MSE. Presumably, such a user ...
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Should I edit this question or make a new question?
Should the Grothendieck ring of varieties be K_0 of numerical motives?
I want to change it to:
1) Asking about after tensoring with $\Qb$
2) Asking if there is a map in some direction and if ...
- 15.6k
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Why downvote on meta?
I only posted two questions on meta, both fact based and both about the way MO is supposed to work. Today, I realized that I have received three down-votes. I have a feeling about down-votes (and up-...
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Should I rewrite my question, or create a new one
I posed this question two days ago, which effectively asks "Has X hard-to-describe special case on Barnette's Conjecture been proven?". In retrospect, I believe it was a poor question.
What I now ...
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