Questions tagged [feature-request]

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56 votes
1 answer
734 views

Minor edits, subject to review

Now that MathOverflow has moved to 2.0, there is a potential solution to the long-standing tension between people wanting to make minor improvements to old posts, and others not wanting the 'active ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
53 votes
1 answer
732 views

Can we have the window title for a question start with the question?

The title attribute in the page of a question like Comparison between $E_2$-terms of Leray and “second hypercohomology” spectral sequences is currently set to "ag.algebraic geometry - Comparison ...
Omar Antolín-Camarena's user avatar
39 votes
2 answers
1k views

Deleting others' work

Recently a question was posted on MathOverflow, which received (I think) more than an average number of upvotes. There was an answer to the question, by someone other than the OP. Next day, the ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
39 votes
1 answer
1k views

Cancel the association bonus

There has been some previous discussion of the association bonus, c.f. The Association Bonus Is there an association bonus for this site? Can we please get rid of the association bonus for other ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
37 votes
3 answers
730 views

Discreet editing

After I edited someone's Question or Answer, it feels real awkward to see my name mentioned in front of the author of the respective Q. or A. I feel that instead of displaying editor's name there ...
Włodzimierz Holsztyński's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
880 views

Why not 'thanks' in comments?

I've noticed a message in mathoverflow's place for comments saying that '+1' or 'thanks' comments are not appropriate. I don't agree with the second kind of comment being inappropriate. I think it's ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar
29 votes
1 answer
902 views

Using MO as a platform to discuss papers in math?

A use case scenario: I am reading a paper and I get stuck on some point. It is obvious to me that everyone else who tried to understand this point would get stuck. I ask around, people either haven't ...
Anton Mellit's user avatar
  • 3,572
27 votes
2 answers
2k views

Explicitly pointing out math.stackexchange when (new?) users ask a question

I have recently flagged several questions for migration to math.stackexchange which were fairly clearly not about mathematics research and related topics. It was clear that in some cases these new ...
Ricardo Andrade's user avatar
26 votes
4 answers
841 views

Which Latex / MathJax features do we need or want to have supported on the site?

As we've started discussing, Stack Exchange is planning to redo the editor for all questions and answers across all their sites. As articulated by Emilio Pisanty, these changes will have significant ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 60.6k
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
25 votes
4 answers
1k views

Should users be shown some basic information before posting the first question? [duplicate]

In an answer to another question discussing possibilities how to decrease the number of off-topic questions1 it was mentioned that: Perhaps we should force a person to read the rules before posting ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
24 votes
1 answer
1k views

"A year in moderation" post on MathOverflow?

You might have noticed than many Stack Exchange sites have some statistics about both community moderation and moderators' activity posted on meta under the title "2018: a year in moderation". Here is ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Does Mathoverflow really want the 'Publicist' badge?

I enjoy the rewards system on the Stack exchange network. I learned some time ago that you can easily earn gold badges on all sites by picking the most interesting questions and using the "Share" ...
Brian Rushton's user avatar
22 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why do we link to Twitter, Facebook or Google+ below every question?

I edit this old feature request of mine, in the hope that mentality have evolved and some consensus can be reached and some action be taken: After each question on MO (with no answers yet), we can ...
Joël's user avatar
  • 25.7k
22 votes
0 answers
211 views

Questions containing my "favorite tags" are barely distinguishable

I liked the fact that in MO v1, any question which contained one of my list of favorite tags was noticably highlighted (a brown-orange color, if I remember correctly). In the new version, such ...
Charles Rezk's user avatar
  • 26.6k
21 votes
4 answers
779 views

Customize the modal window for the first-time askers [duplicate]

When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with a short advice. The content can be either a generic message or it can be customized for a ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

Ignoring certain users' postings

This old post on meta stackexchange contains a script that hides posts from users of your choice. There were some negative comments there and the script doesn't seem to be working anymore (maybe ...
Felipe Voloch's user avatar
20 votes
7 answers
2k views

Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?

In case you missed the news, upvotes on questions now grant +10 reputation instead of +5, and the change has been implemented retroactively (most if not all users have already had their reputation ...
Wojowu's user avatar
  • 27.4k
20 votes
2 answers
974 views

Can (and should) Project Euclid links be replaced in bulk?

In February 2021, Project Euclid made some changes on their website: Project Euclid Platform Migration FAQs. It is probably a consequence of this that the links starting with ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
20 votes
0 answers
310 views

Make edit history more accessible

Once a post has been edited once, there is a direct link to the revision history of the post that is visible to everyone as in this example: However, when a post has not been edited, this link is not ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
412 views

Community Wiki in the hands of moderators

I don't understand the wisdom of removing the CW button from the control of an author of a question, and having always to pester the moderators to turn it on. Might it be possible to return this ...
Todd Trimble's user avatar
  • 52.3k
19 votes
1 answer
808 views

Using mathoverflow as a blog

In the past, I’ve seen instances where a user has been accused of ‘using mathoverflow as a blog’; the specific criteria for when this accusation is leveled vary, but generally the following are ...
Alec Rhea's user avatar
  • 8,977
18 votes
1 answer
452 views

Please BCC moderator private messages to [email protected]

(This is a feature request only really relevant to moderators, but feel free to vote or comment anyway!) With the move to 2.0, the moderators now have a new mechanism for contacting users, called a ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
805 views

Why is the "last seen 96 years ago" feature gone?

User homepages used to display the information "last seen ... (min/days/...) ago". It appears this feature is gone now. I found it useful, and while it does divulge some otherwise ...
Christian Remling's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
545 views

Removing questions after answers

I recently gave a simple counter example to a question posed (I'm sure the mods can see the question). Probably the user was embarrassed by this. The question was promptly deleted and with that my ...
Thomas Rot's user avatar
  • 7,363
18 votes
0 answers
3k views

Can we replace client-side MathJax with server-side MathJax?

One of the (many) problems with MathJax is that formulas are rendered using a client-side JavaScript. Apart from the process itself being ridiculously slow, this also means that the entire page must ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
162 views

Making it easier to access hidden comments

This is a follow-up of this recent post, and hopefully a feasible suggestion. Problem: If a question/answer has many comments (say more than fit on my screen) and I decide to read them all, in ...
Wolfgang's user avatar
  • 13.2k
17 votes
4 answers
1k views

Opting out of reputation

[Disclaimer. I'm making this feature request not because I want it nor because I think it's a good idea, but because I heard it so often that there is need to discuss it. Please don't shoot the ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
813 views

What to do with homework questions?

I think something should be done with the homework questions: there are too many of them now. I suggest that one reason for closing should be "homework". If at least 3 people vote for that reason to ...
user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
10k views

KaTeX vs MathJax

According to some benchmarks, it seems that KaTeX renders latex much more faster than Mathjax. Is there any chance to use KaTeX in place of Mathjax?
Tadashi's user avatar
  • 1,580
17 votes
1 answer
453 views

Should the rules for deleting own questions be modified? - an example

I am aware of the own question deletion rules - in particular, kindly provided in an answer to Rules for deleting one's own question by Martin Sleziak. I think these rules have to be changed ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
911 views

Can we make the cite link bigger?

The cite link in the share box is minuscule: Since this is a very important feature for MO, it should have much more visibility. [Related: https://meta.mathoverflow.net/questions/112, Citation ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
573 views

How To Ask page

One of the best things on the old MO page was the "How to Ask" link on the top. It is true that SE took the hint and added something like that to the previous FAQ (which is now retired), but the MO ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 38.1k
17 votes
0 answers
259 views

Reviewing first posts that are answers or late answers

When reviewing first posts that are answers or late answers to questions that have existing answers I invariably go to the original question to see these answers since I want to check if these new ...
Chris Ramsey's user avatar
  • 3,944
17 votes
0 answers
383 views

Booth at Joint Mathematics Meeting?

This is identical to my misplaced "answer" here, written while attending JMM. I am reposting a fresh question at François G. Dorais's request. I wonder if it make sense, at some future Joint ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
16 votes
5 answers
746 views

What should the modal window for first-time askers say?

When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with some introductory advice. As explained in the March 2020 announcement of this feature, there is ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 60.6k
16 votes
1 answer
593 views

Would disallowing displayed equations ("double dollars") in titles be useful?

If a poster includes in the title some formula in enclosed between $$, like $$x^2+y^2=z^2$$ $$x^2+y^2=z^2$$ the title of the ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
814 views

Really minor complaint about the off-topic close menu

In the off-topic part of the close menu, the radio button for "this question does not appear to be about math" is annoyingly close to the link to the help center, at least for me: Twice now I've ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
447 views

Feature request: add short "about MathOverflow" section to the front page

Until a few years ago MathOverflow front page had a short section at the top describing what the site is for. I am not sure when it disappeared or why but I would like to see it restored. Currently ...
Vitali Kapovitch's user avatar
16 votes
0 answers
255 views

Change of colors

I decided to follow up on my own thread regarding the color scheme, and test something up. Using archive.org, I loaded a copy of MathOverflow from 2011, and it turns out that the questions in one's ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 38.1k
15 votes
1 answer
354 views

Could there be a warning when a new tag is created?

It is rather easy to make a typo and create a new tag by mistake without even noticing it.1 Could we have a warning saying that the user is creating a new tag so that users can notice such mistakes ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
15 votes
4 answers
886 views

Hiding reputation

In MathOverflow 1.0 we had the ability to hide other users' reputations. Can we get that again? (Also, I had to rewrite this question several times to get past an annoying box that said my question ...
Mark Meckes's user avatar
  • 11.2k
15 votes
0 answers
235 views

Change reputation required to post on meta back to 5 reputation points

Typically, Stack Exchange sites have the restriction that only users with at least 5 reputation points on the main site can post on meta. In this regard, MathOverflow is different. (It is listed also ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
158 views

Converting a too-long answer in a comment should generate an error message

I just tried to convert an answer into a comment; it was too long for a comment, and the software just truncated the text. I think it would be better to either generate an error message, ask for ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
503 views

Allow questions to be closed as duplicates of questions on math.stackexchange.com

We frequently have questions that are crossposted, e.g. https://mathoverflow.net/questions/137414/systems-of-parameters-for-algebra-a#question. The only options for now are to close as off-topic, ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
14 votes
5 answers
1k views

Public dumps for mathoverflow?

As far as I remember, there was supposed to be a public dump of the MO database just before the migration: http://dumps.mathoverflow.net/ . Not an urgency by any measure, but something that would be ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
553 views

Forbid (or rewrite) proxy links in answers

One can see from the recent discussion Correcting links with university proxy (especially MathSciNet links) that some users add in their posts links that only work for people behind a specific proxy, ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
413 views

Illustrating posts of others

This issue arose in connection to the question Is this a $C^0$ foliation of $\mathbb{R}^2$? where a foliation is described formally. I thought it would help to have a picture of it. Initially I wanted ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
169 views

No MathJax on meta

Meta doesn't seem to have MathJax enabled ($x=y$). I think it's best enable it to be consistent with the main site.
Anton Geraschenko's user avatar
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

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