All Questions
375
questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
81
votes
0answers
2k views
Donations to MathOverflow, Inc
Long time followers of MathOverflow will know that as well as the website, hosted by StackExchange, and moderated by the moderation team with all of your help, there is an independent 501(c)(3) ...
56
votes
0answers
6k views
PhysicsOverflow just went live
The new site is now up and running (outside the SE network) here
http://www.physicsoverflow.org
PhysicsOverflow is meant to be some kind of a rebirth of the untimely passed away Theoretical Physics ...
53
votes
0answers
936 views
Is there a software solution if we do cut the cord from SE?
There has been some recent concerns about MathOverflow's relationship with StackExchange: see
What is MathOverflow's "agreement" with Stack Exchange?
How much is MathOverflow exposed to ...
44
votes
0answers
979 views
ImageShack images turning into ad banners
It's been fairly well known for some time that ImageShack is a poor image host for Stack Exchange, because they frequently delete old images and replace them with placeholders.
Recently, however, ...
43
votes
0answers
1k views
An interactive graph of MathOverflow tags
I created a graph of tags from Stack Exchange sites (including MathOverflow), TagOverflow.
It is a continuation on my previous project - plots with static graphs and (sadly) without MO (due to API ...
36
votes
0answers
456 views
Happy 4th anniversary, MathOverflow!
As some will cerainly know today (September 28th) is MO's anniversary, its fourth to be precise. Since this year it appears there is no system-message to celebrate the event, I thought I create this ...
34
votes
0answers
743 views
Richard K. Guy, the centenarian mathematician
Professor Richard K. Guy, the great number theorist had passed away long before in March. Since there were no posts to commemorate him on this site (as far as I saw), I decided to post this question ...
34
votes
0answers
587 views
Revamping the closure reasons
Motivation 1
Currently the custom off-topic reasons for MathOverflow read:
This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center.
...
31
votes
0answers
910 views
2013 Election Results
The election process is over, and now it is time to declare the winners:
Good luck in the new position, I'm sure that you'll prove to be a great addition to the community and its moderators!
On ...
26
votes
0answers
598 views
The color of links in comments
In the following image, depicting a piece of a comment on MO.se
the words «this link» are a link to some URL, yet the styling makes it quite not apparent; the only styling I can see is a ...
25
votes
0answers
1k views
Unregistered Users (in Theory and in Practice)
There's been past discussion (e.g. here) about whether MathOverflow should allow posts from unregistered users. I am fully on board with the apparent consensus that the answer is yes, because of the ...
23
votes
0answers
684 views
Should “The probability for a streak when tossing a coin” be reopened?
The question "The probability for a streak when tossing a coin" is on hold. [Edit: It has been reopened.] I disagree with closing the question and voted to reopen.
This problem may sound like it is ...
22
votes
0answers
201 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 ...
20
votes
0answers
278 views
Request to keep an eye out for PROMYS admissions problems
Many of you may be familiar with PROMYS, a camp based out of Boston University which teaches number theory to high school students each summer. Students applying to the program are asked to submit ...
20
votes
0answers
842 views
Are we making it too tempting/easy to send inappropriate posts to MSE?
This "question" (asking for generalized help with a long list of elementary topics) is clearly going to be unwelcome almost anywhere, yet two users voted to close with a suggestion to "see math....
20
votes
0answers
729 views
Which “non-arxiv” tags are de facto top-level tags?
The tag system on MathOverflow is designed in such way that each question should contain top-level tag; these are the tags which correspond to subject areas on arXiv and generally have format such as ...
20
votes
0answers
215 views
Visited / unvisited links in the questions / answers
I just posted a question and I noticed that unvisited links use a color that is difficult to distinguish ... but visited links are even harder to recognize. See the snapshot below from my Firefox 41....
19
votes
0answers
1k views
Increase in unexplained downvotes on (old) questions/answers?
I recently received a downvote without comment on a question and all of its answers, which are good independent of the value of my question imo. I’ve also had two other questions receive similar ...
19
votes
0answers
396 views
The message “User was removed” can be ambiguous
You could save me a few heart attacks :-) by changing the message to the more clearer "Voter was removed" (or whatever you see fitting). I first thought I was removed (maybe on another suboverflow, ...
19
votes
0answers
1k views
18
votes
0answers
521 views
What “lattices” do we need?
The tag lattices is a problem since a long time. Over the years there were varied discussions about this, but no clear resolution emerged, though some things were done to better the situation. This is ...
18
votes
0answers
154 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 ...
17
votes
0answers
580 views
Effects of the Stack Exchange 'update to Terms of Service' on MathOverflow
Do the recent changes to Stack Exchange Terms of Service affect MathOverflow in any way -- and if yes, what are the concrete effects?
17
votes
0answers
488 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 ...
17
votes
0answers
255 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 ...
17
votes
0answers
2k 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 ...
17
votes
0answers
191 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 ...
17
votes
0answers
377 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 ...
16
votes
0answers
451 views
Studying the MathOverflow data dump with Mathematica
This is just a mention of some work Wolfram has done recently, allowing you to import a database dump of MathOverflow and analyse it within Mathematica.
The Data Science of MathOverflow
Their ...
16
votes
0answers
1k views
Can we please reopen the colorful language in mathematics question?
A long time ago, the question
What are some examples of colorful language in serious mathematics papers?
was closed because someone posted a copy of Spencer Bloch's review of Milne's Étale ...
16
votes
0answers
461 views
Site statistics: Effectivity of the advice to edit a question which is closed as “unclear what you're asking”
When a question is closed as "unclear what you're asking", it gets
attached the following message:
Please clarify your specific problem or add additional details to
highlight exactly what you ...
16
votes
0answers
500 views
Recurrent posting about «Matrix polynomials» and so on
MO is currently being the focus of what I guess to be a single particular individual R.T.Man sporting multiple unregistered users identity (like Eskand or H.night). S/he's asking multiple very similar ...
16
votes
0answers
568 views
area 51 proposal - Math review
Recently I created a new proposal at area 51; it's called Math Review (http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/90443/math-review), and it is intended to be a Q&A site concerning troubles one ...
16
votes
0answers
653 views
16
votes
0answers
294 views
Redundant ways to close as off-topic/better on MSE
Right now, there are 4 ways to vote to close a question as off-topic.
"This question does not appear to be about research level mathematics within the scope defined in the help center."
"...
15
votes
0answers
1k views
Suspected foul play with a triple of questions
A little while ago someone asked (now deleted, but link still here: https://mathoverflow.net/questions/314572/advice-on-how-i-can-i-publish-my-solution-of-the-riemann-hypothesis?noredirect=1#...
15
votes
0answers
543 views
The existing deprecated tags should be blacklisted
TL;DR: I suggest to blacklist the deprecated tags that still exist on some questions, in order to prevent them from being added to new questions.
There are a few tags which are deprecated and should ...
15
votes
0answers
386 views
How to re-ask an old question?
I would like to know whether there has been progress in the last five years on the 2011 question H^4 of the Monster. Given the discussion there (and also given what else I know of the field), it seems ...
15
votes
0answers
436 views
Question was deleted, I'd like to know the answer or contact the poster
This question (now deleted) asked for a way to compute generators for $I \cap \mathbb{Z}[z_1,\ldots,z_n]$ as an ideal of $\mathbb{Z}[z_1,\ldots,z_n]$, given generators $f_1,\ldots,f_m \in \mathbb{Z}[...
15
votes
0answers
651 views
“Questions” of the type “I have written something, please give me feedback”
I have now today seen several questions (this and this)
which asks for feedback on research articles, rather than stating explictit questions.
There is of course a gray zone, but I wonder a bit what ...
15
votes
0answers
373 views
Area 51 proposal: History of Science And Mathematics
I've created a new proposal on Area 51 for a Stack Exchange focusing on the history of mathematics and science.
As a math student, I am constantly studying the history of the subject. I feel that ...
15
votes
0answers
246 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 ...
15
votes
0answers
157 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 ...
15
votes
0answers
691 views
The 6 semi-essential meta questions of every SE 2.0 upgrade
In the spirit of The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta
I realized that there were a few things that needed to be decided by a large site that has suddenly gone SE 2.0. Initially I planned to ...
15
votes
1answer
486 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, ...
14
votes
0answers
193 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 ...
14
votes
0answers
283 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 ...
14
votes
0answers
504 views
Thank you letter!
I am quite aware that meta has not designed for what I am about to write, but I cannot help myself. This concerns a recent "question" on MO: US editors and reviewers vs Iranian Authors? Indeed, it ...
13
votes
0answers
802 views
Vandalism edits by apparently-anonymous users
There is an answer to an old community wiki question that was edited about 45 mins ago to make it sexually explicit, with a second attempted edit pending approval to make it even more so.
I rejected ...
13
votes
0answers
776 views
Diminished activity during pandemic?
There has been a reduction in "traffic," but not nearly as
much as I anticipated. This chart is maybe a few days
behind a fast-moving situation, but I find it somehow
comforting that math "goes on." ...