All Questions
1,850
questions
13
votes
1
answer
517
views
Number of questions posed per day
Right now the sites statistics page shows that MathOverflow is seeing an average
of 38 questions per day. Is there a plot of this average over time somewhere?
My perception is that it has been ...
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 ...
5
votes
1
answer
242
views
Flagging Options
When I flag a question, I'm given a menu of possible reasons. Sometimes there are only three reasons (roughly "Spam", "Offensive" and "Needs Moderator Attention"). Other times there are more (e.g. "...
10
votes
0
answers
185
views
Wrong message for closing questions as off-topic
I was just reviewing the queue for closing votes, and I noticed that the message displayed in the options for closing as off-topic was:
off-topic because...
This question does not appear to be ...
8
votes
0
answers
315
views
Asking two questions, one of which implies the other
I have two statements, A and B, and I want to ask on MO whether they are true. They are not obviously related, but I have a (simple) argument to show that A implies B. Should I:
Ask about both in ...
4
votes
1
answer
422
views
What are our copyright policies?
Interesting questions, answers and ideas overflow everywhere in MathOverflow. Users can use them in their lectures, papers, teachings, etc. Of course it is the main propose of this free math ...
9
votes
1
answer
280
views
Downloading one's questions/answers
Silly question... how can I download the questions/answers I've participated in on mathoverflow, as listed on my homepage, onto my computer? I'm leaving in the near future to where there is no ...
8
votes
2
answers
250
views
Sort unanswered questions by tag
Please excuse my mo.meta ignorance.
Is it possible to view the list of percentage of unanswered questions, sorted by tag? (This is somewhat ill-posed because many questions have multiple tags, but ...
20
votes
1
answer
806
views
The math! It's overflowing!
See what happens if you expand the comments on this question, we get this prime example of a math overflow:
Of course, this is due to a \$ problem, but still, it seems to be a flaw in the CSS that ...
3
votes
1
answer
180
views
Front-page not displaying questions
I always go to mathoverflow.net rather than mathoverflow.net/questions, because the latter only shows 50 results per page including results in tabs you've hidden (so I only see about 4 per page). ...
20
votes
2
answers
690
views
Building an MO app?
On stackapps, there is a broad spectrum of apps designed by users to improve their Stack Exchange experience. Most apps are oriented toward Stack Oveflow and do not necessarily address the needs and ...
7
votes
1
answer
370
views
What kind of soft questions are acceptable?
I have come to understand that this site is mostly used by researching mathematicians. I'm a math undergrad, but I have a few questions I'd like to ask researching mathematicians regarding approaching ...
3
votes
1
answer
102
views
Is there a way to get a list of newly deletable questions?
My understanding (correct me if I'm wrong) is that a question has to be closed for two weeks before it can be deleted.
Is there a way to get a list of questions that have recently become eligible for ...
9
votes
1
answer
198
views
Can we have question/comment functionality on the Data Explorer?
The Data Explorer is great. But there seems to be no natural place to request modifications to a given query or to request a desired new query.
If we had at least comment functionality, we could ...
3
votes
1
answer
278
views
Question unanswered on MSE
Would a question that is not addressed in usual standard texts on a subject and which remains unanswered on MSE be on-topic on Mathoverflow?
20
votes
7
answers
2k
views
What is needed to succeed in keeping up the level of the site and retaining the good contributors?
MathOverflow is a nice high-level communitiy with a good collegial academic atmosphere.
I'd like to know about how this can be achieved; for example how does MathOverflow keep up the good qualitiy of ...
9
votes
1
answer
471
views
Is it considered good practice to clean up one's "useless" comments?
Hovering with the mouse above the upvoting arrow of a comment shows the text "this comment adds something useful to the post". Therefore arguably the number of upvotes a comment receives equals the ...
9
votes
1
answer
391
views
Trouble understanding criterion to answer protected question
This question is protected, and the box at the end says: "To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site."
What does this mean?
I am asking because I am currently shown as ...
36
votes
10
answers
5k
views
On the role of anonymity in a site dedicated to research-level mathematics
My questions is whether there is a good reason to allow anonymous users in a site dedicated to research-level mathematics. In theory, most users of this site are professional mathematicians and ...
15
votes
2
answers
670
views
How to wake up an old question?
Suppose there is an old question on mathOverflow, asked by someone else, which has been voted up a quite decent number of times, and received several answers which have also been voted up, but no ...
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, ...
3
votes
1
answer
174
views
YEAR is missing in many places specifically in questions
There is a little bug : most dates question , comments etc..) the year is lost.
As the site is now older there are questions that are 1 2 or 3 years old and we cannot tell.
May be I am missreading ...
3
votes
4
answers
586
views
Which is more appropriate: MO-risking or Meta-checking?
Here is the longer version of the title:
Which is more appropriate: to "risk" asking your question directly on
MO, or to check the appropriateness of your question on meta in
advance?
From ...
3
votes
0
answers
220
views
Bumping of obviously offtopic questions
Today, https://mathoverflow.net/questions/28487/is-there-a-concept-equivalent-to-factorial-that-uses-addition-rather-than-multip was on the front page. I was about to flag the question, only to ...
22
votes
1
answer
716
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 ...
3
votes
0
answers
205
views
What is the source of this strange title strike?
In this question.
4
votes
1
answer
359
views
html tags in title, e.g. s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶
I thought it was a good idea to edit the title of the following question:
What is the source of this E̶r̶d̶ő̶s̶ quote?
I wanted to strike through (like this) the name Erdős, but apparently the html ...
6
votes
0
answers
353
views
Should this question remain closed?
The OP of How to project a vector onto a very large, non-orthogonal subspace has written to complain that the question was closed unfairly. The question is too far from my area of expertise to be ...
29
votes
3
answers
727
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 ...
12
votes
1
answer
522
views
When to answer a question via a comment?
I have noticed something a bit confusing to me during my first few days here at MathOverflow. In the "about" section it says users can "improve posts by editing or commenting." On multiple occasions I ...
17
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Frequently asked questions about tagging on MathOverflow
Due to several discussions on the main site, I am asking this question concerning the best practices for tagging questions on MathOverflow. Unfortunately, the relevant documentation page https://...
-5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Protest for my account suspension [closed]
I posted this question about two month ago. Shortly after this, I got a moderator private message.
It says:
We've noticed that you have a pattern of engaging in lengthy discussions in comments, ...
38
votes
29
answers
3k
views
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 ...
3
votes
1
answer
247
views
Missing question and user?
Well, this is embarrassing.
I've spent the last 20 minutes looking for a particular question on main but haven't been able to find it at all. This question involves something like the growth of $n!/(...
23
votes
2
answers
848
views
Crazy idea about soft questions
I was thinking the other day about big list and other soft questions and had the following crazy idea.
It seems to me that what we want is to occasionally have good soft questions. The main thing ...
40
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What shall we do with stone soup?
Sometimes, a question is asked that isn't up to the standards of MathOverflow. Maybe it's worded vaguely, maybe it's too open ended, or maybe the asker fundamentally misunderstood something important.
...
116
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Anton's departure as moderator
Does outgoing moderator Anton Geraschenko deserve our heartfelt thanks, or what?
31
votes
0
answers
979
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 ...
4
votes
1
answer
103
views
Voting on suggested tag synonyms
I created a suggestion for the tag synonym 'mg.metric-geometry' <--- 'classical-geometry' two weeks ago. However, it appears to have received no votes yet, up or down. Is this delay to be expected? ...
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 ...
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What does research-level mathematics mean?
My understanding of this is that mathematics is research-level if:
you could conceivably write a paper on some aspect of it;
it could be taught in a grad-level course;
it is not widely known ...
4
votes
1
answer
182
views
Inline images not displaying correctly?
The images in https://mathoverflow.net/a/123671/3 are not displaying properly (checked in Chrome and Firefox), but I'm not sure why. Loading the given URLs in a new tab works fine.
7
votes
1
answer
237
views
Should posts sitting in the "First posts of new users" review queue be hidden from view until they have been approved?
Presently, questions from new users are shown and can be answered immediately, although they also go into a dedicated review queue (https://mathoverflow.net/review/first-posts).
Since a significant ...
-22
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Don't we have a redundant math site?
We have mathoverflow.com with 144000 questions and answers, and we have math.stackexchange.com with 522000 questions and answers. Isn't there a redundancy? Shouldn't both sites be merged? I propose a ...
8
votes
1
answer
433
views
A set of basic LaTeX macros for MO?
Do you think it would be feasible / possible to put together a basic header file of "standard" LaTeX macros that we might be able to use when typing up MO questions or answers? I mean, basic objects ...
2
votes
0
answers
161
views
Should the tags [inner-models] and [inner-model-theory] be merged?
Right now there are two tags for questions about inner model theory: inner-models and inner-model-theory. I can't see any difference in the type of questions being asked under these two tags. Should ...
9
votes
1
answer
254
views
Don't HTML encode quotes when creating suggested BIBTEX entries
If you click the share link underneath a question (on the main site, but not here), you'll then see a cite link, which will ...
4
votes
1
answer
331
views
How can I add a diagram or picture to my questions?
As it is obvious by title, I need to add a diagram to clarify my intuitions in some questions. How can I do it? Is there any limitation in format and size of the pictures?
1
vote
1
answer
129
views
Unification of two accounts
I have two accounts "loup blanc" on Math Overflow. One is unregistered, dated Aug 3, 2012 (reputation 26), and the other is registered. Is it possible to unify the two accounts into the second one?
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 ...