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41 votes
2 answers
1k views

Who owns my MathOverflow posts?

Does Stack Exchange or MathOverflow own my posts? Can I reuse my posts elsewhere? Do I need to cite MathOverflow if I want to reuse my posts elsewhere?
François G. Dorais's user avatar
40 votes
1 answer
914 views

2021 Community Moderator Election Results

MathOverflow's second moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the three new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for ...
Catija's user avatar
  • 101
40 votes
0 answers
1k views

Moderation strike update 2

There has been movement at the station. Reposting an update on how the negotiations are going from this answer on meta.StackExchange, which also gives details on other updates over the past fortnight. ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.2k
39 votes
4 answers
2k views

A StackExchange website aimed at graduate students?

There has been a lot of discussion about questions that do not get answered on MSE, but are not considered 'research level' on MO and thus get closed. The problem seems to be that certain questions ...
R. van Dobben de Bruyn's user avatar
39 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. ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
39 votes
2 answers
1k views

Deleting others' work

Recently a question was posted on MathOverflow, which received (I think) more than an average number of upvotes. There was an answer to the question, by someone other than the OP. Next day, the ...
Iosif Pinelis's user avatar
39 votes
1 answer
1k views

Cancel the association bonus

There has been some previous discussion of the association bonus, c.f. The Association Bonus Is there an association bonus for this site? Can we please get rid of the association bonus for other ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
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 ...
Daniel Moskovich's user avatar
38 votes
1 answer
2k views

Viewing reputation and badges is now opt-in and compatible with the new front page

This announcement is a little late (see the discussion here), but in response to discussions over many years, we (the moderators and board) have implemented a change to the site where by default, ...
Ben Webster's user avatar
  • 43.3k
37 votes
5 answers
4k views

History of MathOverflow

What is history of this site? When and by whom was it created? What were the important milestones of this site?
37 votes
2 answers
547 views

Is it worth editing old posts to add links for references?

I always appreciate when citations to papers in MO answers/questions have a hyperlink — it’s very convenient for the reader, especially in cases where the referenced paper is non-trivial to find. ...
Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine's user avatar
37 votes
4 answers
923 views

Improving citations of MathOverflow posts

There are already a lot of citations of MathOverflow in the literature. Nevertheless, there is some resistance in the greater mathematical community since MathOverflow is not a traditional medium. ...
François G. Dorais's user avatar
37 votes
3 answers
730 views

Discreet editing

After I edited someone's Question or Answer, it feels real awkward to see my name mentioned in front of the author of the respective Q. or A. I feel that instead of displaying editor's name there ...
Włodzimierz Holsztyński's user avatar
37 votes
1 answer
3k views

Grothendieck's passing

I think it would be a healing ritual for the MO community for someone of appropriate stature (which excludes me) posting an inviting cwiki question that elicits responses from the users to this ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
37 votes
0 answers
1k views

Moderation strike update 6 and last : back to work

As you probably were aware, since early June moderators around the whole SE network have been striking, including at MathOverflow. We appreciate your patience through this time, and there has been a ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.2k
36 votes
10 answers
4k 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 ...
alvarezpaiva's user avatar
  • 13.1k
36 votes
3 answers
1k views

Welcoming new user: on a recent question about connections

I think that the history of this question about connections is unfortunate. I would like to discuss (respectfully, without throwing blame around) whether/how a better outcome might have been achieved....
Neil Strickland's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
1k views

MathOverflow to the rescue -- not in the usual way

Every now and then we get a post to meta about ways in which MathOverflow has improved the quality of someone's research. One way I haven't seen mentioned is one that just now happened to me, and (...
Steven Landsburg's user avatar
36 votes
4 answers
868 views

Why not 'thanks' in comments?

I've noticed a message in mathoverflow's place for comments saying that '+1' or 'thanks' comments are not appropriate. I don't agree with the second kind of comment being inappropriate. I think it's ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar
36 votes
1 answer
1k views

How is it off-topic to ask whether the normalization of a local complete intersection is Gorenstein?

This question (which I did not ask) is whether the normalization of a local complete intersection domain is Gorenstein. Why was this closed as "off-topic"? Especially when this one, which asks ...
Gro-Tsen's user avatar
  • 28.3k
36 votes
0 answers
457 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 ...
user avatar
35 votes
6 answers
3k views

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 ...
dhy's user avatar
  • 5,816
35 votes
2 answers
1k views

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:...
Alex M.'s user avatar
  • 5,105
35 votes
4 answers
892 views

Using ideas found in MO and MSE in a paper

If there is an answer to a question that I have asked on MathOverflow or MathStackExchange which helps me to prove a result appropriate for a published paper, what should I do: (1) Cite the MO or MSE ...
user237522's user avatar
  • 2,735
35 votes
3 answers
1k views

Creating a "math.SE needs your help" thread

From time to time questions get asked on math.SE which may be quite suitable for MO. Given the current climate of math.SE, such questions may not receive the attention they are due: e.g., they ...
user642796's user avatar
34 votes
6 answers
1k views

How can we visually differentiate MathOverflow from MathStackExchange within the constraints of the new design themes?

The new design theme introduced for MO here is now live. Several issues with the new theme were raised in that discussion. I'd like to discuss one of them, which is sort of buried in my answer and ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 58.6k
34 votes
4 answers
1k views

Answers in comments are increasingly more common

I have checked a random sample of questions in the main page, and it seems that almost every one of them has some form of answer in the comments, apart from completely unanswered/untouched ones. This ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
34 votes
6 answers
1k views

Disappearing "Hi!"

Just curious ... A brand new member posted a question this afternoon, and I posted an answer. I know him quite well, and he was here in Bristol to give a seminar two days ago, and without giving it ...
Jeremy Rickard's user avatar
34 votes
5 answers
1k views

Long-term archiving of MathOverflow

Suppose 'the worst' happens. Stack Exchange folds (commerical entities have been known to), and at the same time the moderators lose all interest and/or decide the despise mathematics. Where would ...
Scott Morrison's user avatar
34 votes
1 answer
674 views

Opt out of the new upvote/downvote buttons?

I guess most of you have noticed by now the new upvote/downvote buttons. This seems to be in line with all the other SE sites (though I admit I haven't checked each and every one of them). Does MO ...
M.G.'s user avatar
  • 6,633
34 votes
0 answers
769 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 ...
vidyarthi's user avatar
  • 1,841
34 votes
0 answers
617 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. ...
Willie Wong's user avatar
  • 35.3k
33 votes
3 answers
1k views

Easy research-related questions, and closure reasons again

I am a bit confused by the close reason for https://mathoverflow.net/questions/154235/minimum-l1-norm-may-not-obtain-the-sparsest-solution?noredirect=1#comment395410_154235. It is an easy question ...
Federico Poloni's user avatar
33 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is MO connected?

Is it the case that MO is actually split into several communities which only communicate with each other through meta-activity but have no actual mathematical interests in common? This is not sheer ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
33 votes
5 answers
744 views

Couldn't the comment vote rate limitation be made more ergonomic?

Quite often I read a comment thread, and then decide which comments I vote up. As soon as this is more than one comment, I get an error message that I can cast only one comment vote every 5 seconds. --...
Stefan Kohl's user avatar
  • 19.3k
33 votes
0 answers
580 views

Moderation strike update 5 : the results of negotiations

The negotiations over the strike have ended with agreement addressing all the issues raised by the striking moderators. The post on meta.StackExchange was vetted and agreed to by both sets of ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.2k
33 votes
0 answers
631 views

Moderation strike update 4

This update is to point to two posts by the company on the platform-wide meta site, Meta Stack Exchange. The post (Historical) Policy on the use of GPT Generators is a copy of the private policy on ...
David Roberts's user avatar
  • 33.2k
32 votes
4 answers
2k views

How does one cite a MO post with an anonymous author?

I asked the question "Averaging $2^{\omega(n)}$ over a region" because this is a necessary step in a research paper I am writing. The answer is detailed and does exactly what I need, and it would be ...
Stanley Yao Xiao's user avatar
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

early graduate level questions: MO or Math.SE?

When I first began on this site MathOverflow took questions at all levels. Then Math.SE was created and the level of MO has crept up steadily with Math.SE not necessarily absorbing the remainder ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.4k
32 votes
2 answers
1k views

Encouraging student users?

I recently made the transition from student to professor, and now I have a research student of my own. She keeps coming up with wonderful ideas, and I keep feeling like "surely this has been ...
David White's user avatar
  • 25.5k
32 votes
1 answer
903 views

Problematic phrasing of Stack Exchange terms of service

There's a problem with how the Stack Exchange terms of service are phrased. Currently, they include the following paragraph: In the event that You post or otherwise use Subscriber Content outside ...
Henry Cohn's user avatar
  • 16.4k
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can I see who voted for what after I die?

I would like to know who has up- and (most importantly!) downvoted my questions. Will I find out after I die? What do different religions/beliefs say about this? I would happily convert to see the ...
domotorp's user avatar
  • 18.6k
32 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is MathOverflow saturated?

I am playing with the Stack Exchange Data Explorer to compare some MathOverflow stats to arXiv stats. I was surprised to see, that in the last 4 years there was almost constant activity (measured by ...
Piotr Migdal's user avatar
  • 1,592
32 votes
1 answer
605 views

Potential "technical" obstacle to migrations, and suggestion for a solution

Practical advice: If you want to/vote to migrate something to another site (especially math.SE) please make sure that at least one of the tags on the question exists on the target site (math.SE). ...
user avatar
31 votes
10 answers
3k views

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?
Gil Kalai's user avatar
  • 24.1k
31 votes
112 answers
12k views

Requests for reopen and undelete votes for closed and deleted questions

Since I expect this may prove rather useful, I'm blatantly purloining Asaf's question from meta.math.se. Please post general requests for reopen votes as answers below. Beware that "short" ...
31 votes
9 answers
1k views

Privacy of software-generated links to questions and answers

Recently I noticed that the software inserts the id of the currently logged in user in the “share” link of any MathOverflow question or answer. When one is logged out, the “share” link comes out ...
Dmitri Pavlov's user avatar
31 votes
0 answers
978 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 ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 37.7k
30 votes
2 answers
1k views

Has there been a recalculation of reputation?

At the risk of being too venal: yesterday I had over 8500 and now I am under 7900. Anyone else experienced changes with similar orders of magnitude?
Yemon Choi's user avatar
  • 25.3k
30 votes
2 answers
920 views

On the current color scheme, and why it sucks

Being color blinded is not very easy. You end up wearing black shirts and blue jeans, because it's easier. When you look at a computer monitor sometimes the red and green mix together, all sort of ...
Asaf Karagila's user avatar
  • 37.7k

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