# All Questions

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### 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. ...
• 42.3k
715 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 ...
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 ...
• 145k
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 ...
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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....
• 49.1k
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?
964 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 (...
• 20.9k
524 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. ...
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 ...
• 80.3k
818 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 ...
• 14.2k
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 ...
• 22.4k
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 ...
868 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 ...
• 2,593
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, ...
• 41.6k
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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 ...
• 676
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 ...
• 5,526
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 ...
• 50.5k
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 ...
• 30.1k
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 ...
• 7,308
759 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 ...
• 1,753
609 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. ...
• 31.7k
1k views

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 ...
• 17.8k
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 ...
• 16.3k
733 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. --...
• 18.2k
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 ...
• 21.6k
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 ...
• 17.8k
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### 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 ...
• 21.9k
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 ...
• 1,592
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?
• 23.7k
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### 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" ...
1k views

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 ...
767 views

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 ...
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### 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 ...
• 17.3k
597 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). ...
963 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 ...
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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?
• 24k
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### 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:...
• 4,730
907 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 ...
• 35.5k
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 ...
• 22.4k
408 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 ...
• 16.3k
2k views

The question "naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties" (naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties) recently received an apparently useful answer from a user with the name "...
• 19.4k
937 views

### How can a nonacademic with research level questions know which questions are research level?

I am actually still in High School, but I enjoy some more advanced forms of mathematics. I asked a question, and it generated a great response, and I really enjoyed the process, so must have come of ...
• 4,156
1k views

### MathOverflow at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Baltimore, January 2014

The 2014 Joint Mathematics Meetings will be held January 15-18, 2014 in Baltimore, with hundreds thousands of mathematicians attending. It happens that I plan to attend, and since I'd enjoy going to ...
1k views

### What do you want to do in Rio?

Four weeks from tomorrow (at this writing) is March 5, the deadline for submitting abstracts for Short Communications for the ICM 2018 (International Congress of Mathematicians) happening In the first ...
• 12.6k
961 views

### Prosus' acquisition and its effect on MathOverflow

Just saw the PROSUS acquisition news of StackOverflow. Does it have any effect on MathOverflow? In what way would it help or not help MO? Thanks beforehand.
• 1,753
864 views

### Using MO as a platform to discuss papers in math?

A use case scenario: I am reading a paper and I get stuck on some point. It is obvious to me that everyone else who tried to understand this point would get stuck. I ask around, people either haven't ...
• 3,492
651 views

### Migrating to Math.SE: too many close reasons [duplicate]

As everyone knows, we get a fair number of questions on this site that are not research level, but would be appropriate for http://math.stackexchange.com. As a frequent Math.SE user, I have an ...
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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, ...
• 36.4k
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### MO in the Notices of the AMS

On page 333 of the March 2010 issue, John Baez wrote that "MathOverflow has become a universal clearinghouse for math questions." The March 2017 issue features an interview with Prof. Ken Ribet--the ...
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