Questions tagged [on-topic]

For discussions and questions on the appropriateness (for the main site) of a question or a certain type of question.

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14 votes
2 answers
914 views

Revamping the closure reasons in 2022

Prompted by Gro-Tsen's recent meta question, it appears that now may be a good time to rethink our site-specific close reasons here on MathOverflow. Background: If you have sufficient rep, you can ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 60.5k
25 votes
1 answer
1k views

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 ...
David White's user avatar
  • 28.7k
21 votes
3 answers
932 views

Is there a consensus on whether history of mathematics questions are acceptable on MO?

I recently stumbled across an old meta discussion in which some people suggested that history of mathematics questions were off-topic for MO. This took me by surprise and I would like to ask for ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
82 votes
4 answers
26k views

Is there a way to discuss the correctness of the proof of the RH by Atiyah in MO?

I just made a question in MO to discuss the correctness of the proof provided by Prof. Atiyah for the Riemann hypothesis (link here: Is there an error in the pre print published by Atiyah with his ...
Héctor's user avatar
  • 515
23 votes
4 answers
2k views

Are professional Physicists, Computer Scientists, Engineers, Economists... not allowed to ask questions at MO?

"MathOverflow is a question and answer site for professional mathematicians." May other professional researchers ask questions at MO? Should they check their credentials at the door? If not, and ...
André Levy's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

Cross posts to Math SE

Are cross posts to Math SE allowed? As in almost exactly the same text, just posted there. Of course the sites are meant for difference things, but still just wondering. And if yes, should one link ...
redelectrons's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
355 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 ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

early graduate level questions: MO or Math.SE?

When I first began on this site MathOverflow took questions at all levels. Then Math.SE was created and the level of MO has crept up steadily with Math.SE not necessarily absorbing the remainder ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.6k
22 votes
3 answers
923 views

Pronunciation questions

Every so often, I have a question about the correct pronunciation of a math term/name that I’ve only read, and the answer isn’t on Wikipedia. Some examples from my past: “Hartshorne” (I ended up ...
Avi Steiner's user avatar
  • 3,031
21 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can I ask a question on MathOverflow and also on another site?

Sometimes one might ask a question on a website such as Mathematics Stack Exchange which is comparable but not identical to MathOverflow, and then decide to post the same question on MathOverflow. ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 60.5k
20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Any other site besides mathoverflow and mathematics stackexchange?

I know the differences between mathoverflow and math-stack but I have been wondering: Are there legitimate mathematical questions that would not get answered at math-stack because there is no ...
Sergio Parreiras's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
529 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 ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 29.8k
9 votes
4 answers
868 views

Are research questions in MSC 97 (Mathematics education) allowed on MO?

Check AMS Mathematics Subject Classification, you will find the 2 digit classification "97" for mathematics education. Thus it seems that It is allowed to ask mathematics education research questions ...
Amir Asghari's user avatar
  • 2,279
85 votes
3 answers
2k views

Should this site be "a shortcut to substitute for literature searches"?

On Reference for invariance of essential spectrum under relatively compact perturbations, Michael Renardy voted to close with the comment "This site should not become a shortcut to substitute for ...
Nate Eldredge's user avatar
39 votes
4 answers
2k views

A StackExchange website aimed at graduate students?

There has been a lot of discussion about questions that do not get answered on MSE, but are not considered 'research level' on MO and thus get closed. The problem seems to be that certain questions ...
R. van Dobben de Bruyn's user avatar
24 votes
5 answers
2k views

How should we react to the existence of Math Educators SE?

As was previously announced at meta, there is now an SE site for mathematics education (MESE). My broad questions is this: Should we react to this somehow? (More specific questions are below.) Does ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
701 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
48 votes
4 answers
3k views

On discussion of published papers at MO

There is an interesting discussion taking place at MO over the suitability of this question: Complex structure on $S^6$ gets published in Journ. Math. Phys. The question is about the correctness of a ...
Todd Trimble's user avatar
  • 52.3k
38 votes
4 answers
2k views

Most important results of the year - appropriate or not?

The question Most important results in 2023 has been posted to MO, and as in previous years, has had a mixed reception. (EDIT: As of this writing, the post has been deleted by the author, presumably ...
Timothy Chow's user avatar
36 votes
1 answer
1k views

How is it off-topic to ask whether the normalization of a local complete intersection is Gorenstein?

This question (which I did not ask) is whether the normalization of a local complete intersection domain is Gorenstein. Why was this closed as "off-topic"? Especially when this one, which asks ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 29.8k
25 votes
1 answer
831 views

"Is this a known/interesting result?"-type questions

Are questions of the form "Is this a known result?" and "Is this an interesting result?" legitimate for MO? I have sometimes found myself staring at results that were new to me and unsure whether ...
mweiss's user avatar
  • 525
21 votes
4 answers
2k views

Publicizing conjectures on MO

This question Positive integers written as $\binom{w}2+\binom{x}4+\binom{y}6+\binom{z}8$ with $w,x,y,z\in\{2,3,\ldots\}$ is basically just a statement of a few conjectures by the asker. The "...
Zach Teitler's user avatar
  • 6,197
20 votes
2 answers
912 views

Questions on Coq

Now I'm awake again, I can raise this here in meta, as per quid's request. I commented on the question How do I verify the Coq proof of Feit-Thompson? I like this question, and would defend it ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.4k
19 votes
1 answer
935 views

Is my question suitable for MO?

Around a month ago I asked a question on ME here. It was well received (got seven up votes). Sadly nobody was able to help much. To get more attention I also placed a bounty on it. Still no luck. The ...
PMaynard's user avatar
  • 211
8 votes
2 answers
590 views

Getting Experts Opinions on Mathematical Results

I would like to know, whether it is in the line of MO rules to present a result and ask for "opinions" like whether it is already known or worth pursuing and, who might be interested in the result. ...
Manfred Weis's user avatar
  • 12.6k
6 votes
3 answers
758 views

Where/how does one best post "Seeking a collaborator"

I have an idea for an attack on an additive number theory conjecture. My usual collaborator (with whom I have published four papers) is not an ANT specialist, and is not interested in working on this ...
Kieren MacMillan's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
250 views

Would this M.SE question that has received no answers be appropriate for MO? (or could it be tweaked into being appropriate?)

https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/667830/modern-research-into-grassmans-theory-of-forms When I first posted it on MO, it received a downvote, so I figured there might be something wrong with ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
158 views

Would this question be appropriate on the main site?

I would like to ask a "big list" style question on the main site. The question would be "How do we pronounce the names of famous mathematicians?". Each answer would be an audio ...
Steven Gubkin's user avatar