All Questions
643
questions
30
votes
1
answer
425
views
Text on some buttons has become unrecognizable
Very recently (I think today) the buttons with "Post your answer", "Answer your question" and some others became black, with the text hardly readable.
With me it happens on Windows 10 with latest ...
29
votes
0
answers
516
views
Moderation strike update 3
There was a lull in the negotiations, for various innocuous reasons that are not relevant. But on 20th July 2023, the following update was posted to Discord by negotiator Mithical, and reposted at the ...
28
votes
12
answers
1k
views
Site updates are live
A majority of the changes are not be visible; these tweaks go along with recent updates that were made to Stack Overflow:
We have updated the site's CSS to a newly refactored LESS system, so that it'...
28
votes
5
answers
1k
views
Drastic locking of the question "Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics"
The question Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics, was one of the best and most successful questions in the history of MO. When we discussed closing it, it was argued that after 164 answers ...
28
votes
3
answers
732
views
When asking a question on MO it seems there's far too little information on what MO is about
When we switched from the old format to the MSE 2.0 format, almost all the information about what MO is about, and what is expected from a good question was been stripped from the site. I mean, one ...
27
votes
2
answers
1k
views
MO policy regarding pseudonyms that are other people's real name
I have noticed just now that a user has chosen as pseudonym "Alexander Grothendieck", which I'm a bit unconfortable with (the probability that it is also that user's name is extremely low, hence my ...
27
votes
2
answers
672
views
Would newly elected moderators join the board of MathOverflow Inc.?
MathOverflow is a bit different from most of the sites in the network in that it is not operated only by Stack Exchange, but it "belongs" also to the nonprofit MathOverflow corporation.
If I ...
27
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Do your own homework
Occasionally, we get questions on main taken from old contests, such as Olympiads and Putnam exams. These questions are inappropriate for MO, and they get closed, which is as it should be. However, ...
26
votes
4
answers
861
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 ...
25
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Request from PRIMES to keep an eye out for their problems
On m.SE last year there was a problem with someone cheating on the entrance problem set for the PRIMES high school research program at MIT. Selection for PRIMES for this year has begun, and they're ...
25
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How to handle crankery on MathOverflow 2.0?
On the previous MO we had a thread on Tea called "crank post to flag as spam" in which crank posts were pointed out so people could flag them as spam and have them deleted.
Seeing how we are now ...
25
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Jean-Christophe Yoccoz
I've heard today that Jean-Christophe Yoccoz passed two days ago:
Le mathématicien français Jean-Christophe Yoccoz, médaille Fields, est mort [archived], Libération, 05.09.2016.
I think people would ...
25
votes
1
answer
835
views
Why is the update so awesome?
I mean, we really don't deserve it. It's awesome. Good work everyone, high-fives all around. Cheers (for those of you from across the pond, so-to-speak).
25
votes
1
answer
841
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 ...
25
votes
2
answers
1k
views
My question has already been asked, but not really answered? What should I do?
I have a question I am curious about: call it $Q$.
There exists a posted question $P$ on MO which asks my question $Q$. More precisely, $P$ states a series of (slightly vague) questions, one of ...
24
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What makes you vote to close a question?
Some recent exchanges and observations suggest to me that users not only have different thresholds for voting to close a question yet still applying the same criteria, but that they even apply so ...
24
votes
2
answers
895
views
Statistics showing that more reputation for questions leads to better questions
One of the more controversial aspects of the transition to MO2.0, for myself at least, was the reduction in the reputation added for upvotes on questions asked from +10 to +5, while retaining the ...
23
votes
0
answers
919
views
Upcoming election announcement (2022)
It has been quite some time since the last moderator election, and we decided that it would be a good idea to hold one soon.
This is just a preliminary announcement to let you know that this is going ...
23
votes
0
answers
1k
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 ...
23
votes
0
answers
782
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 ...
23
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Encouraging new users to provide a name or a nickname
After the transition to MO 2.0, I noticed an increased influx of anonymous users, with user names like user####. Of course, people can have all kinds of reasons to ...
23
votes
3
answers
919
views
How can I donate to MathOverflow — if I should?
I understood from this meta question that MathOverflow is a nonprofit nonstock corporation dedicated to keeping this site running and that the nonprofit status allows receiving donations.
What is the ...
22
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Question about $i$ versus $-i$
I vaguely recall that some years ago, there was an MO question about how to distinguish between the complex numbers $i$ and $-i$, and in what sense this might be meaningful.
I also recall that I ...
22
votes
1
answer
722
views
Should OEIS links be updated?
Historic links to the OEIS are of the form http://www.research.att.com/~njas/sequences/A097048. These links no longer work: Neil has retired from AT&T, and in the meantime has set up the OEIS ...
22
votes
1
answer
711
views
Why are we now getting 'hot network questions'?
I notice that we are now getting a bar listing hot questions from across the SE network. I thought we'd settled for no cross-site advertising in MO2.0.
22
votes
1
answer
1k
views
One person creating multiple Riemann Hypothesis-related accounts
I have been flagging these posts individually, but I thought maybe a meta question would be a good follow-up, in case the moderators are not aware of the behaviour. As @YemonChoi points out, the ...
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 "...
21
votes
2
answers
781
views
Stack-exchange devoted to research problems, the suggested approaches and updates
The idea is to have a database of open research problems where the answers will be updates or suggested approaches. One research problem per post. This is in the spirit of Polymath.
Reasons:
...
21
votes
2
answers
2k
views
MathOverflow @ ICM2014 : We Want You!
This post will raise several questions/issues on which I want
community feedback.
Background: Inspired by Tim Post's offer
Mugs, Stickers And Shirts - Now With 100% More MathOverflow! , I++ decided ...
21
votes
2
answers
922
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 ...
20
votes
0
answers
227
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....
20
votes
2
answers
454
views
Voting on meta questions to indicate agreement or disagreement
We've previously discussed the meaning of a downvote on meta, and I think that's worth reading before discussing anything further here.
I don't at all like that perfectly reasonable questions (...
20
votes
2
answers
887
views
It's been another year...MO exists since six years!
As provable by Question Number 1 the site started to exist almost exactly six years ago.
Everybody who feels like saying something on this occasion, feel free to post an answer.
20
votes
0
answers
311
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 ...
20
votes
2
answers
846
views
MathOverflow conferences
What would the appropriate initial steps be to host a MathOverflow conference?
Back in 2019 I hosted a party for the 10th anniversary of MathOverflow, and it was a blast.$^*$ Since then I've ...
20
votes
2
answers
1k
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 ...
19
votes
1
answer
661
views
Should I give a link to my recent published paper to an old question of mine on MO?
4 years and 6 months ago I asked on MO: "Who introduced the terms “equivalence relation” and “equivalence class”?" It was somehow a resting stone of a long journey that started 13 years ago from today ...
19
votes
2
answers
977
views
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 ...
19
votes
1
answer
941
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 ...
19
votes
2
answers
779
views
How can I tell if my question is appropriate to MathOverflow or if I should just put a bounty on it at Math.SE?
I have at least two questions which are about graduate level mathematics on Math.SE, but about which I have serious doubts regarding whether or not they are "research level". In other words, I don't ...
19
votes
1
answer
641
views
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 &...
18
votes
11
answers
903
views
2022 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, 2022-09-19. In ...
18
votes
5
answers
1k
views
On the recent question "Is Euclid dead?", or: Is it considered good practice to use MathOverflow for a campaign?
Yesterday, a question entitled Is Euclid dead? has been asked
in which the OP states:
"Currently I am leading a campaign for the return of EG to the syllabus
of the high schools of my country (...
18
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Deletion of on-topic comment threads
This question is about suppression of threads of comments by moderators, moved to chat with the message "Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat", ...
18
votes
2
answers
607
views
What's the point of having an *MO* chat without LaTeX enabled?
The title says it all. :-)
In response to the automatic disapproval of the question body:
I tried to edit the chat messages after submitting but couldn't figure out how to do that either. (And I ...
18
votes
0
answers
549
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 ...
18
votes
9
answers
769
views
Requests to remove community wiki
In the old days of MathOverflow, community wiki status was irreversible. This is no longer the case! There are many old questions and answers that became community wiki by accident or other reasons. ...
17
votes
2
answers
918
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 ...
17
votes
2
answers
806
views
Proposal for Mathematics Learning, Studying, and Education
In view of https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/12470/forum-for-chatty-math-education-questions, I thought to create this proposal. I'd appreciate your support and contributions. Please allow ...
17
votes
1
answer
599
views
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 ...