Questions tagged [feature-request]

You have an idea for a new feature, or for a change to the existing functionality.

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11 votes
6 answers
734 views

What outgoing migration paths should we have?

Now that we can migrate off topic questions, what sort of migration paths should be useful to have? I think that adding at least Cross Validated, if not one or two of the other science sites, would ...
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56 votes
1 answer
714 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 ...
26 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 ...
22 votes
4 answers
744 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 ...
15 votes
5 answers
652 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 ...
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14 votes
3 answers
1k views

List of recurrent technical problems involving MathJax

Edit: I have retagged this question 'feature-request' in an attempt to expedite action on these issues. I request that the MathOverflow developers implement an automatic fix of the issues in the ...
9 votes
6 answers
430 views

Revising the help page on "What topics can I ask around here?"

This is a freestanding post taking its content from a previous discussion on the modal window for first-time askers. Thanks to Martin Sleziak and Tim Campion for the encouragement to post it ...
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2 votes
2 answers
564 views

Completely Unexplained Downvotes

I came across this question recently and asked the OP to explain some notation (see my comment below the question). As the OP was addressing my concerns, there was suddenly a down-vote (along with the ...
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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 ...
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" ...
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 ...
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12 votes
4 answers
756 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 ...
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

Diagrams in MathJax via xypic.js

Apparently, the Stacks project can load a MathJax extension called xypic.js (check the source code) and then has access to ...
9 votes
1 answer
438 views

Allow posting on meta without any reputation for the first week

Would it be possible to remove the reputation requirements for posting on meta for the first week, while we iron out all the login problems people are having? We've already had a few instances of ...
5 votes
1 answer
288 views

Tag warnings on MO

In the last few months, Stack exchange has introduced tag warnings, that is, a text that is displayed when a user creates a new question that contains a specific warning, such as this example. ...
3 votes
1 answer
359 views

Option to migrate to CS Theory

We should add the option to migrate to Theoretical Computer Science when voting to close. This question is an obvious candidate.
2 votes
2 answers
335 views

Is there a clear rule against "check this proof" type questions?

I discovered that the meta question "Questions" of the type "I have written something, please give me feedback" from more than three years ago still does not have any answer, while ...
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 ...
17 votes
2 answers
547 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 ...
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14 votes
1 answer
655 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 ...
  • 24.5k
12 votes
1 answer
195 views

Ability to flag user accounts as spam

There is currently no method to flag a user account as spam (only posts). However, there is a huge influx of user accounts that are clearly spam (look for the "Autobiographer" badge on the ...
  • 2,527
11 votes
1 answer
519 views

Could we add another reason for closing that's more appropriate for "check this (dis)proof of RH"-type questions?

I wanted to vote to close this question which claims to disprove the Riemann Hypothesis, but I realized that, even though we get questions of this kind occasionally, none of the reasons to close is ...
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8 votes
1 answer
532 views

Two new user pages?

Will MO be participating in this? http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2015/04/two-new-user-pages-one-new-stat-this-ones-big/?cb=1
4 votes
1 answer
322 views

Auto-bumping of unanswered questions

Like many users, I suppose, I have wondered how and when an old question gets bumped by the system. (Of course an edit or a new answer bumps a question: I'm not asking about this.) From Francois ...
0 votes
0 answers
167 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 ...
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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 ...
25 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 ...
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 ...
19 votes
3 answers
407 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 ...
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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 ...
16 votes
0 answers
252 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 ...
  • 36.9k
14 votes
0 answers
295 views

Please enable the AMScd package by default

We can draw diagrams using the AMScd package, and works quite nicely (see Math.SE for a working proof). However, on MathOverflow the package seems to be disabled by default, so if a user wants to use ...
  • 36.9k
12 votes
2 answers
323 views

Filtering out the Autobiographer badge from "Recent Badges"

As discussed in this recent post, there is currently an influx of a ridiculous number of profile spammers showing up with the Autobiographer badge in the "recent badges" box on the MO ...
  • 2,527
12 votes
1 answer
320 views

Being notified of the comments under the answer of someone else to your post

Sometimes a lot of good things happen as the comments under an answer to your post. Though we are notified of the answers given or the comments under the body of the post, it seems that we are not ...
  • 2,269
11 votes
1 answer
211 views

Flagging as Low Quality should add the post to the review queue

In How to handle crankery on MathOverflow 2.0? Andy Putman pointed out that he flagged a post as low quality, but it never reached the low quality review queue. I feel that in order to effectively ...
  • 36.9k
10 votes
1 answer
430 views

Reword "What topics can I ask about here?"

Another time recently, an user has asked a question which is very far from research level, and has been reprimanded for not reading the FAQ. However, I realize that there might be a problem in the ...
10 votes
1 answer
488 views

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 ...
  • 11.7k
7 votes
2 answers
5k views

LaTeX style accents in regular text

LaTeX has some handy macros that allow the insertion of diacritics and other special characters in text mode. Relevant tables from the Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List: These are handy since they don'...
6 votes
1 answer
267 views

Adding "Academia.StackExchange" to the migration list

First, I hope that the request is appropriate and asked at the right place. If you have any issue with it, remarks are warmly welcomed. When flagging a question for "Off-topic > This question belongs ...
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6 votes
1 answer
273 views

About the option of editing comments - a different algorithm?

There is a 5 minute limit on editing comments. Perhaps the idea is to keep the flow of the thread faithful (to avoid distortions--or even manipulations--of a discussion). However I happen to be quite ...
5 votes
0 answers
119 views

When we close questions and suggest MSE, should we link to their How to Ask? [duplicate]

When we close questions by saying MathOverflow is for mathematicians to ask each other questions about their research. See Math.StackExchange to ask general questions in mathematics. ...should the ...
  • 18.7k
5 votes
1 answer
261 views

Any chance of a "save for later / TODO" feature?

Sometimes when browsing MO questions I have the need to "save for later" for various reasons. There is a star for favoriting questions, it would be very useful to have "TODO" labels beyond just the ...
  • 28k
4 votes
1 answer
235 views

Should we have standing bounties?

There have been proposals to stop the bounties from expiring. On meta.SE these have been received rather badly, but would be most likely welcome here, as offering rewards for unsolved problems has a ...
  • 17.9k
4 votes
1 answer
363 views

Migration to Physics.SE

Several times, including perhaps this question today I would have liked to suggest migration to Physics.SE. Similar to this question I would like to ask for this feature to become available as a ...
  • 1,629
4 votes
1 answer
161 views

Is there an option to hide migrated (or even on hold) questions?

It would make sense, especially for MO, to have an option to hide migrated and on hold questions in the user preferences. Is there a way to do this already? If not I think this would make a nice ...
user avatar
2 votes
3 answers
1k views

Winter Bash on MO?

I noticed that the Stack Exchange sites are having a Winter Bash, and one of my friends received a hat on MSE. Why isn't this on MO? It'll be fun to have something like that here, wouldn't it? (I ...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
232 views

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 ...
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 ...
37 votes
3 answers
721 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 ...
26 votes
4 answers
760 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 ...
  • 54k