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13 votes
3 answers
572 views

Cleaning up comments

Traditionally, MathOverflow moderators only delete comments that are highly problematic. Even in that case, we copied the entire deleted comment thread to tea.mathoverflow.net. Since migrating to the ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
460 views

Why the downvotes on off-topic questions

I am not that active on MathOverflow but I notice that almost every off-topic question is closed within an hour. Why is a flag (if you lack of reputation) or a close vote (and in both cases a comment) ...
Dominic Michaelis's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
382 views

Questions answered in a comment

It may happen that a question has zero answers, but is actually already answered satisfactorily in a comment. An example is this question. I think this is somewhat misleading, as the "0 answers" ...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.3k
22 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 ...
Igor Khavkine's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
421 views

Would the question "Fourier series is to Fourier transform what Laurent series is to …?" be on topic at MO?

I asked the question Fourier series is to Fourier transform what Laurent series is to …? over at MSE, since that's where my questions usually belong to. But since I couldn't find any resources on it, ...
Tobias Kienzler's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
560 views

Tumbleweed Badge: Proper Response

Being a European, I doubtless do not fully understand the associations of the Tumbleweed badge that I have just received. Is there a MO consensus about the appropriate reaction?
Ian Calvert's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
726 views

Should questions to which I already know the answer in advance be appropriate for MO?

I was just asking Is it appropriate to ask for references and point to a blog with the same question and started to read http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2011/07/its-ok-to-ask-and-answer-your-own-...
Christian Stump's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
129 views

Is it appropriate to ask for references and point to a blog with the same question

I wonder if the community would find it appropriate if I ask a question like " Is this or that known? It would be interesting for this and that reason. For details see our blog "blah" where we ask ...
Christian Stump's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
462 views

Adding \LaTeX to old questions and answers

Maybe some context in the beginning. It is my second year in university so I am far away to be good enough to answer questions here, but from time to time I enjoy reading questions and answers. I ...
Dominic Michaelis's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
92 views

Why do backticks appear in the title?

Why do backticks appear in the title of the following question? Is $ \sum\limits_{n=0}^\infty x^n / \sqrt{n!} $ positive? Is that the expected behaviour? I foolishly attempted to edit the backticks ...
Ricardo Andrade's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
116 views

How to ask questions during connectivity issues?

After a few hours of not being able to reach meta.mathoverflow.net, (possibly due to DNS?), I resorted to asking a question about it on the main site. Later I posted something to a chat room, and ...
The Masked Avenger's user avatar
12 votes
7 answers
590 views

Help fix the documentation!

Moderators have started incorporating the old faq material in the new help system. It wasn't a perfect fit, a lot of stuff is no longer relevant, redundant, missing or broken. You can help by going ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
26 votes
4 answers
7k views

On using MathJax to create 'white space'

The purpose of this post is, first, to raise awareness (as this, reasonably, might not be clear) that the way some (and it seems to me the number is growing) use MathJax to create 'white space' (or to ...
user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
299 views

What should the "hover text" for the MathOverflow link on all SE sites be?

If you go to the bottom of any page in the SE network (e.g. this one!), you'll see a list of SE sites. In particular there's a link to MathOverflow, that is potentially seen by a large number of ...
16 votes
1 answer
404 views

Visits per day: 1

From the link that quid usefully provided in another answer:
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
410 views

Community Wiki in the hands of moderators

I don't understand the wisdom of removing the CW button from the control of an author of a question, and having always to pester the moderators to turn it on. Might it be possible to return this ...
Todd Trimble's user avatar
  • 51.9k
4 votes
1 answer
406 views

The mysterious Sportsmanship badge

MO 2.0 has a new badge: Sportsmanship: Up voted 100 answers on questions where an answer of yours has a positive score. I'm curious whether this badge really makes sense in our community- I think I ...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
150 views

How should I use the meta-tags [feature-request], [bug], [support], and [discussion]?

On meta, each post must be classified into one of four classes. Which should I use? Note that in addition to these four classes there are numerous other tags on meta that can and should be used in ...
9 votes
4 answers
1k views

How to treat `polymath' questions?

W. Kuperberg asked a question about plane geometry, which invites contributions to solving a research problem which he has worked on. Small quadrilaterals containing a given convex region Given that ...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar
67 votes
6 answers
3k views

The Association Bonus

One new feature that's come along with the transition is the "association bonus", which allows members of Math Stackexchange --- and other sites that are much further removed from the mission of MO ---...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
143 views

How do I combine my two accounts?

I made a mistake and now I have two mathoverflow accounts. I have an account on stackExchange and another account on Yahoo. How do I combine these two accounts? Is there any way? Thanks
Sepideh Bakhoda's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
311 views

Mathematical modeling Area51 Proposal

I wanted to inform those who did not follow that there is a Mathematical modeling proposal in Area 51 under its way: http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/57490/mathematical-modeling Since it ...
András Bátkai's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
432 views

Remove the option to migrate questions anywhere

I would like to see the "migrate" option disappear, for multiple reasons. First, it seems presumptuous for those of us who don't participate on, say, math.stackexchange, to express opinions about ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
280 views

Migration to stats.stackexchange.com

Today I came across this question, which seems to me would be better asked at stats.stackexchange.com. I tried flagging the question as off-topic/migration, but only meta.mathoverflow.net and math....
Alicia Garcia-Raboso's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
561 views

Close cross posts between here and MSE

If a question is cross-posted here and on the Math Stack Exchange, what's the policy to deal with these? For example take this question and its MSE twin. Should one of them be closed? If so, which ...
MvG's user avatar
  • 534
14 votes
1 answer
170 views

Explanation of site scope in help center

Where in the new help center can I find an explanation that the scope of this site is limited to research-level math questions? There is a close reason (part of "off topic") that mentions the help ...
Carl Mummert's user avatar
  • 9,593
4 votes
1 answer
202 views

Searching via site:mathoverflow.net: a puzzle

I was searching for an answer I posted, using Google. I knew I mentioned "beltway," "homometric," and "Skiena." But none of the Google searches ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
-20 votes
2 answers
726 views

Should Theoretical Computer Science SE and mathoverflow be merged?

I asked the same question at SO meta and I was asked to repost here. Preamble: I have a feeling that I am disturbing honeycomb by raising this question. Now that mathoverflow.net is a part of the ...
Graviton's user avatar
  • 381
14 votes
4 answers
635 views

Removing greetings and taglines

The Stack Exchange Network frowns on greetings and taglines in posts. There were mixed reactions to this before we moved to the network. Should MathOverflow tolerate greetings or not? Is it ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
11 votes
0 answers
260 views

Quick or easy methods to post math or diagrams on chat

One of the seeming obstacles to having scheduled informal seminars on chat is the extra work, probably mostly for the leader of the discussion (should there be one), in presenting ideas on the chat ...
Will Jagy's user avatar
  • 25.2k
10 votes
2 answers
298 views

The data explorer on MO

I don't seem to be able to use http://data.stackexchange.com/ on MathOverflow. Will this change?
Mariano Suárez-Álvarez's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

In writing a research paper, how can I refer to peoples' answers given to a question on MO?

Here is a question that I recently posted on MO. The last paragraph of the description reads: The reason that I am interested in this question is that we are currently working on an assessment ...
Amir Asghari's user avatar
  • 2,269
2 votes
2 answers
567 views

Completely Unexplained Downvotes

I came across this question recently and asked the OP to explain some notation (see my comment below the question). As the OP was addressing my concerns, there was suddenly a down-vote (along with the ...
Vidit Nanda's user avatar
  • 15.3k
21 votes
3 answers
912 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
  • 76.8k
7 votes
1 answer
289 views

Spelling conventions

After the recent discussion on LaTeX style accents, I have been reminded of this old discussion at tea regarding the appropriate spelling convention for some German names, such as Kähler. At the time, ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
9 votes
5 answers
460 views

What are Tips and Tricks to use MO more effectively?

The purpose of this question is to collect a list of Tips and Tricks for using MO in a more efficient or otherwise better way. If you know some trick or have a tip you want to share with your MO-...
13 votes
0 answers
332 views

Will MO have Community Promotion Ads?

Community Promotion Ads seem to be a useful tool for helping spread various links that might be useful for users of the site. I have mostly encountered them at MSE. I have learned several ...
Martin Sleziak's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
267 views

Moving off from MO

How is the account in MO closed ? What I mean is if I want to permanently close my login ( and let others know) what do I do
ARi's user avatar
  • 841
15 votes
2 answers
296 views

When questions are migrated, so are comments, and this can cause misconceptions

I recently noticed a question posted to MO that was migrated to MSE. Furthermore the comment was also migrated along with the question. The content of the comment was "This is not the right site for ...
Baby Dragon's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
941 views

Would it be appropriate to ask why a new user chose MO over MSE?

With the move to Stack Exchange 2.0, some people feel that there will be (have been?) many more first time users asking questions on MO which should instead be asked on MSE. Presumably, such a user ...
Michael Albanese's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
532 views

latex.mathoverflow.net/png images broken

Prior to MathJax and jsmath, MathOverflow used http://latex.mathoverflow.net/png to generate images of mathematical equations to insert in posts (e.g. this one). That didn't last very long but all of ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
552 views

Reasons for closing

I just voted to close this question as off-topic. On the old MathOverflow, I'd have voted to close as "Not a Real Question". But in the current version, the closest I can come to "Not a Real ...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
273 views

where is the Tips and Tricks list from MO 1.0?

I asked a question at why the extra step in registering? whose solution by Shog9 I think would be worth placing in the Tips and Tricks list. But I don't see the Tips and Tricks anymore in the right ...
KConrad's user avatar
  • 48.8k
14 votes
2 answers
358 views

Selected Papers Network

As some (many?) of us are aware, there is a recent venture to enable some sort of "meta-discussion" interface for the articles in the form of the Selected Papers Network. For a quick introduction to ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
  • 35.2k
-13 votes
2 answers
412 views

Should the MathOverflow chat room have its own moderators?

The Math Stack Exchange chat room has had some heated arguments/suspensions in the past and I was wondering if there were any plans for the newly opened Math Overflow chat room to have its own ...
user 85795's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
2k views

What should be the policy on "open problems" on MO?

The subject of this discussion are questions on "open problems" on MO. There is an existing policy on "open problems" reproduced from the (old) FAQs, which involves an open-problem tag. The ...
user avatar
7 votes
8 answers
1k views

Specialized chat rooms

Would there be an interest in having more specialized chat rooms, like the one for homotopy theory that currently exists? So far, the homotopy theory one seems to be fairly successful, and it seems ...
Tobias Kildetoft's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
493 views

Why was 'How to Discover Counterexamples and Required Objects' put on hold?

Please forgive me if I did not post this correctly. I'm writing following https://mathoverflow.net/help/reopen-questions. I would like to ask for my question to be reopened: https://mathoverflow.net/...
user avatar
53 votes
1 answer
731 views

Can we have the window title for a question start with the question?

The title attribute in the page of a question like Comparison between $E_2$-terms of Leray and “second hypercohomology” spectral sequences is currently set to "ag.algebraic geometry - Comparison ...
Omar Antolín-Camarena's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
174 views

soft-question tag for discussing mathematical best-practices

I asked a question about where people could store slides for future reference. As a discussion of best-practices in the Mathematical profession, I thought it was appropriate for the soft-question tag ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.4k

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