Trending questions
1,909 questions
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Drive-By Deletion of Answer to Own Question by Moderator
I'm a bit confused by some moderator action. I posted a question asking for a direct proof of a certain fact. A superb answer was provided by Jochen Glueck. (Thanks again!)
I came across another proof ...
- 165
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Revisiting our policies on thank-you comments
Despite the little notice in the comments section telling us that comments along the lines of 'thank you' aren't welcome because they don't move the discussion forward mathematically, I have always ...
- 10.1k
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Big list of feature requests and suggestions for a fantasy MO 3.0
I feel that MathOverflow is unique in the StackExchange network. There are features which we might want which might be unique to this site, and which might not be immediate feature requests or ...
- 22.2k
4
votes
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A mathjax issue with stars in super/subscripts
I encountered Topos associated to a category with glowing-red \*s in it. When trying to edit them out I discovered that whenever I try to replace an ...
- 18.4k
4
votes
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Why doesn't the prime in $\sum_n'$ sit flush against the summation symbol?
The TeX snippets $\sum_n'$ \sum_n' and $\sum_n^\prime$ \sum_n^\prime should (as with all things TeX, barring trickery) be ...
- 12.9k
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2021 Moderator Election Q&A - Questionnaire
In connection with the moderator elections, we are holding a Q&A thread for the candidates. Questions collected from an earlier thread have been compiled into this one, which shall now serve as ...
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votes
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Is there a way to see the up/down vote spread on all questions asked by a given user?
When you as a user get some sufficiently high reputation, you can see the up/down vote spread of any question/answer. Now suppose there's some user, X, you're interested in. On their page you can sort ...
- 30.3k
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vote
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Why isn't "Nobody has answered" on the multiple-choice list of reasons for a bounty?
When one is asked "Why are you starting this bounty?" the multiple-choice list of answers does not include "Nobody has answered the question." Choosing the answer that says it has ...
12
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answers
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What to do with the erdos tag?
This was discussed before but that discussion is outdated.
Tags related to a specific person are generally bad. (This is not the same as specific topics named after a person, e.g. Galois theory is not ...
- 44.4k
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Kitty can’t fix it — Old questions inaccessible for logged-in users, giving “unexpected error”
For the past few days, any attempt to access the question Collecting proofs that finite multiplicative subgroups of fields are cyclic results in an internal server error:
It seems the poor kitten ...
- 47.8k
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2021 Moderator Election Q&A - Question Collection
The purpose of this thread was to collect questions for the questionnaire. The questionnaire is now live, and you may find it here.
MathOverflow is scheduled for an election next week, 29 March, 2021....
- 101
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answer
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affiliation or association (in the wording of the promotion help page)
There is a little discussion in the comments of a recent MO question on the meaning of the word "affiliation" in our promotion help page. If you promote one of your own publications in a ...
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Interesting (and not sufficiently answered) questions on math.SE
In light of the generally positive response to this meta-thread, I am creating this to help advertise (and hopefully fully resolve) "interesting" questions on math.SE. I'm not really certain what the ...
- 666
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2023: a year in moderation
It’s that time of the year again! As we wave goodbye to last year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year.
As most of you here might be ...
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Should graduate students be encouraged to participate in MO? If so, at what stage?
When I started graduate school ten (!) years ago, a more senior Ph.D student at the time told me about MathOverflow and encouraged me to participate. Ever since then I have found it immensely useful. ...
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MathJax ignores a `\tag` in an `{equation}` containing a `{split}`
The following snippet, when compiled as part of a LaTeX document with appropriate packages loaded, would produce a numbered (well, \tagged) equation:
...
- 12.9k
-8
votes
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Is asking to verify my P=NP proof appropriate?
Is providing link to my (8 pages) proof of P=NP and asking to check my proof appropriate for a MathOverflow question?
The proof is on professional mathematician level (uses advanced logics) and does ...
- 765
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vote
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Undelete a post
Is there any possibility of undeleting a post? I know it was closed years ago as not MO level. So maybe it could be undeleted and then moved to MSE? Just because it hosts a discussion which is ...
- 1,446
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The tag (elementary-number-theory) - yes or no?
The tag elementary-number-theory was created and removed a few times in the past. And recently it was created again - it is still listed among the new tags.
Should there be a separate tag for ...
- 4,713
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answers
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What should we call a tag on point-free topology?
The tag currently used for point-free topology (aka “pointless” topology) is “locales”. I think the name is a bit restrictive: while writing this question (which, indeed, does not contain the word “...
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What do we mean by welcoming when we're a site aimed at researchers?
I was just browsing the main page this morning, and I decided to look at some of the posts by new people. One of the questions had garnered three votes to close and a comment from a regular user to ...
- 19.6k
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votes
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answer
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Should we be more polite when closing non-research-level questions?
We get many questions from students (usually in high school, or less-advanced undergrads) that are clearly off-topic since they’re well below research-level. Mods and high-rep users are generally ...
- 21.3k
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answers
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How can we attract more grad students?
To quote an answer to a recent meta.MO question:
Here are some examples of people we would like the site to be
welcoming to:
Prominent mathematicians who are less "online" than the typical ...
- 5,958
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votes
0
answers
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Including a hash character (#) in a math equation causes it to not render (in new-question page)
I want to ask a question about a paper that uses this notation:
However, when I typeset it in MathJax with ...
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votes
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answer
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Getting list of users ordered by date joined
Back in the old days before we moved to the current stackexchange platform, you could list users sorted by their user number. Is it still possible to get such a list? I'm trying to remember an old-...
- 44.8k
26
votes
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Help cleanup tags!
This is meant to agglomerate tags that need (occasional or regular) cleanup. That is tags that mean multiple unrelated things and need to be separated into more specific tags. Please follow the ...
15
votes
5
answers
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MathOverflow policymaking and transparency
There goeth rumours abroad that some off-site groups are seeking a private forum together with the moderators here in order to make policy for MO.
I hope that the moderators will commit to ...
- 19.6k
5
votes
0
answers
95
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Missing brackets in $\{x\}$ in drafts, not missing in the final question/product
I am using the latest version of Firefox on Linux (bodhi linux) as well as Mac and Windows.
Some $\LaTeX$ is not typeset correctly in MathOverflow: whenever I type a set, like the singleton $\{x\}$, ...
- 48.9k
5
votes
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answer
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Weird site URLs
If I go to MathOverflow from another SE site by clicking on the link in “Your Communities” under the right-most menu on the top-bar, I do not end up with the usual ...
- 47.8k
10
votes
2
answers
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What is the tag [derivations] for?
Since the tag derivations has no usage guidance at the moment, I do not know when it should be used, which is unfortunate.
4
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answers
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Blocking things from feed
Is it possible to block certain users or tags from appearing on one’s personal feed?
- 18.7k
19
votes
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answer
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Creation of "procrastination" tag
One user has created the tag procrastination: see this question. In principle I would have immediately deleted it as totally irrelevant (in the same way I would delete "Stupid question" or &...
- 63.9k
12
votes
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How to recommend that a question is better suited for another SE site that isn't listed in the close reasons?
Today I found MO questions where commenters recommended that Proof Assistants or History of Science and Mathematics would be preferable to MO. Other better placements I remember include Mathematica, ...
- 4,589
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0
answers
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Is asking for the status of Vandiver's conjecture suitable for MO?
I wonder what the current status of Vandiver's conjecture in number theory is? An internet search revealed the paper "Vandiver's conjecture via K-theory" by Alexander Stolin from 2020 on the ...
- 2,019
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votes
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answer
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imgur will remove some content soon. Does MathOverflow need to save images?
It has been reported that "Hosting site Imgur will remove explicit and anonymous content next month". Are there possibly some images linked in MathOverflow questions or answers, attached to ...
- 6,237
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votes
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answers
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Nominating other community members
Is there no mechanism to suggest other community members for nomination?
If I remember correctly, last election there was some mechanism in place to suggest community members other than ourselves who ...
- 10.1k
31
votes
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answers
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What MO is for and what is *your* aim in participation?
Q1: What is your view on the purpose, aims and benefits of MO?
Q2: What are your specific aim, targets and benefits in participation at MO?
- 24.7k
0
votes
3
answers
288
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How long are the lines?
I know that probably my place would be in a mental institution, but I'm a stickler about formatting my questions nicely.
For example, I like to start each sentence in a new line, and I don't like if a ...
- 19.1k
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Is this an AI bot? Can't tell if answer is from a real person
This question of Baez is getting a string of strange answers. I can't tell if the author is a mathematician, but their answers don't make much sense to me.
Which finite abelian groups aren't ...
- 44.4k
2
votes
0
answers
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Should community wiki answers be eligible for bounties?
I posted an answer to this question Kepler conjecture: Are there only two most efficient packings or could there be more than two? summarizing various points made in the comments into a coherent ...
- 24.2k
4
votes
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Why does revision 5 of MO120096 look empty?
I recently came across Andrea Mori's question Explicit Casselman theory: reference needed. The comments 1 2 make reference to matrices rendering poorly, and then being fixed, and I was curious what ...
- 12.9k
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votes
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Questions about correctness of published papers
A recent thread brought up the issue of the appropriateness of discussing correctness of a published paper on MO.
Correctness of Thierry Aubin's argument about positive Ricci curvature
I did a ...
- 44.4k
25
votes
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Updated: Is it time to replace links to the UCDavis arXiv frontend?
This question from March 2020 points out that many questions/answers link to papers at the http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/ frontend instead of at the arXiv itself, but that the frontend had been down a ...
- 21.3k
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Posting a technical/narrow open question on mathoverflow?
I am a bit confused on our policy for open-problems. Are we allowed to post a technical/narrow conjecture/open problem on MO?
For example, here is a type of a beautiful question that I have in mind ...
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answers
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Dialog for closure misleading when question has been closed and re-opened
I noticed, when clicking "close" on this question: Breakthroughs in mathematics in 2023, that when a question has been closed and re-opened, and you voted to close it previously, the dialog ...
- 24.2k
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votes
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527
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Repeated re-open/close votes (Tate conjecture)
The question Tate conjecture (Proved?) was asked yesterday, and quite quickly closed; it was then re-opened, and then closed (by, I think, a different set of 5). Questions about proofs of correctness ...
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vote
0
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Should this question be reopened
Given the comments, should this question be reopened Is |A| < |B| possible if A->B is surjective?
With a negative score, no answers and closed it will be automatically deleted, losing the ...
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votes
2
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Reputation and badges are no longer visible next to the users' names
Right now it seems that a bug is affecting MO: reputation and badges are no longer displayed next to the users' names.
This happens both on the front page:
as well as on pages of individual questions:...
- 5,407
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On the tag [bitcoins]
Since several questions under the tag bitcoins have nothing to do with Bitcoin per se, but, rather, are related to proof of work, why not rename the tag cryptocurrencies or proof-of-work?
2
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Writing personal notes on specific questions
It would be nice to be able to add non-public notes for oneself on interesting questions on MO (of which there are very many), for later remembrance and further thinking on it. These notes can remain ...
- 1,742