All Questions
1,761
questions
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"Newbie-style" questions: is there an "official" viewpoint of MO?
(Neil Strickland provided a link to early graduate level questions: MO or Math.SE? which more or less answers this, so I have marked it as a duplicate)
Every now and then I encounter questions which ...
- 17.4k
23
votes
3
answers
906
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 ...
- 7,703
23
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Asking a question you know the answer to, but not answering
There has been an apparent case where the question poster asked a question that had been answered in their own paper from about 10 years before the question. This would not be a problem if the ...
- 4,736
23
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1
answer
3k
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My question was closed on MO because it is not research level. Where should I ask instead?
If a question is closed (put on hold) on MathOverflow as off-topic for not being research level-question, but it is still a question about mathematics. What might be a suitable place for such question?...
23
votes
2
answers
821
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Can the clutter of obviously off-topic questions be removed faster?
I have noticed a number of blatantly off-topic questions that hang around for a long time despite heavy down-voting and calls for removal by senior users. I found somewhere on the site (although I can'...
- 2,417
23
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2
answers
1k
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Questions which are research level but where the OP is unlikely to have the background to follow the research
There is a type of question which gets closed a lot which I find frustrating. An example is How to compute the volume of a region transformed by a matrix? , which I recently took the liberty of ...
- 145k
23
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1
answer
488
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If I see spam together with mathematical content in an answer, should I edit out the spam?
The title almost says it all, except that I should say that 'spam' here has the strict meaning where a vendor inserts a unsolicited link to a page that advertises or sells a product.
There may be ...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.6k
23
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3
answers
1k
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Does Mathoverflow really want the 'Publicist' badge?
I enjoy the rewards system on the Stack exchange network. I learned some time ago that you can easily earn gold badges on all sites by picking the most interesting questions and using the "Share" ...
- 3,301
23
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2
answers
1k
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Should MathOverflow require registration to ask a question?
Probably anybody visiting this site regularly noticed that quite often there are posts which are not at MO-level and quite frequently also of very low quality. (Many of them are simply copy-paste of ...
- 4,578
23
votes
2
answers
1k
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Editing etiquette
What are some general guidelines for editing a MathOverflow post? Are there some "do"s and "don't"s I should know about?
(The material that was previously in this question box has been moved to an ...
Todd TrimbleMod
- 51.6k
23
votes
1
answer
655
views
Why are MO accounts not listed among other SE accounts?
When I go look at my accounts in SE network, mathoverflow is not listed there. (You can get to the list of accounts, for example, from your profile page. Other SE accounts are listed on profile page.) ...
- 4,578
23
votes
2
answers
846
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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 ...
- 27.3k
23
votes
1
answer
5k
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Why was my dissenting viewpoint in a post about diversity censored?
In a question about special lectures for the ICM, the following answer proposed that a lecture on how to make the mathematical field more diverse be given. The answer contains some rather bold ...
- 1,018
23
votes
2
answers
864
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Featured MO questions on the hot list: what benefits, if any, do these bring?
“Measures to separate MO from the rest of the stackexchange network”, and various other recent meta questions, have discussed (among other things) opting out of the stackexchange-wide hot list.
I’ve ...
- 17.2k
23
votes
0
answers
912
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 ...
- 37.1k
23
votes
0
answers
956
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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 ...
- 145k
23
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0
answers
738
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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 ...
- 27.7k
22
votes
13
answers
2k
views
2021 Moderator election: suggestions for nominees?
As you may have seen, the nominations for the 2021 moderator election will be open on March 29. Per StackExchange rules, MO users are expected to nominate themselves for the election. For some ...
- 42.9k
22
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Measures to separate math overflow from the rest of the stack exchange network
It seems that there is a widespread concern about the influence that in many ways the switch to the stack exchange network has on this site. I infer this from the many questions on meta on this ...
- 25.4k
22
votes
3
answers
1k
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Answering not research level questions
I just commented the solution to a question that was obviously not research level. Then I deleted the solution again since providing it might encourage people to again asking such questions.
...
- 3,191
22
votes
4
answers
2k
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Editing titles to include $\mathfrak{LaTeX \; Math}$
Should question titles, which sometimes intentionally avoid LaTeX math for those who choose faster rendering, be edited to insist upon LaTeX math? A recent instance that prompted my question is "two ...
- 147k
22
votes
3
answers
909
views
Pronunciation questions
Every so often, I have a question about the correct pronunciation of a math term/name that I’ve only read, and the answer isn’t on Wikipedia. Some examples from my past:
“Hartshorne” (I ended up ...
- 2,991
22
votes
4
answers
747
views
Customize the modal window for the first-time askers [duplicate]
When a user asks their very first question on a Stack Exchange site, they are shown a modal window with a short advice. The content can be either a generic message or it can be customized for a ...
- 4,578
22
votes
1
answer
697
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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.
- 32.2k
22
votes
1
answer
713
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
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 ...
- 18.7k
22
votes
1
answer
1k
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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 ...
- 9,927
22
votes
2
answers
2k
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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 ...
- 3,189
22
votes
1
answer
671
views
Tea archive (mathoverflow.tqft.net) seems to be down
It seems that the link http://mathoverflow.tqft.net/ (which, according to this announcement, serves as an archive of the old tea, i.e. the previous incarnation of MathOverflow Meta) no longer works.
...
- 4,578
22
votes
1
answer
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Why do we link to Twitter, Facebook or Google+ below every question?
I edit this old feature request of mine, in the hope that mentality have evolved and some consensus can be reached and some action be taken:
After each question on MO (with no answers yet), we can ...
- 25.4k
22
votes
0
answers
210
views
Questions containing my "favorite tags" are barely distinguishable
I liked the fact that in MO v1, any question which contained one of my list of favorite tags was noticably highlighted (a brown-orange color, if I remember correctly).
In the new version, such ...
- 26.2k
21
votes
5
answers
2k
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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 ...
user9072
21
votes
3
answers
2k
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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 ...
- 21.5k
21
votes
1
answer
850
views
Will ads appear on MO?
It looks like the Stack Exchange network is trying to monetize the various stack sites as much as possible, to the dismay of users across the board.
Will this affect MO?
If I recall correctly we ...
- 8,294
21
votes
4
answers
2k
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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 "...
- 5,450
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2
answers
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Ignoring certain users' postings
This old post on meta stackexchange contains a script that hides posts from users of your choice. There were some negative comments there and the script doesn't seem to be working anymore (maybe ...
- 30k
21
votes
2
answers
625
views
Data on voting by 'association bonus only' users
There's recently been some discussion of the potential impact on voting of users whose only MathOverflow reputation comes from the network association bonus.
I asked the SE team about this, and ...
- 7,430
21
votes
2
answers
782
views
How do off-topic question askers find MO?
Apologies if this has been addressed on Meta before (it's a little hard to know the right keywords to search for Meta questions with).
Question: Has there been any systematic attempt to try to figure ...
- 20.6k
21
votes
1
answer
796
views
Mathoverflow lecture series using chat
This was something that came up recently in the homotopy theory chat room. Even if it wasn't to homotopy theory, has MO ever considered asking active users with interesting research to host lectures ...
- 9,855
21
votes
2
answers
749
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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:
...
- 2,770
20
votes
7
answers
2k
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Can MO go back to +5 rep for questions? Should it?
In case you missed the news, upvotes on questions now grant +10 reputation instead of +5, and the change has been implemented retroactively (most if not all users have already had their reputation ...
- 25.9k
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votes
7
answers
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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 ...
- 408
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votes
3
answers
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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 ...
- 72.5k
20
votes
1
answer
973
views
What to do with links to arXiv front end?
There are quite a few posts which link to some paper at http://front.math.ucdavis.edu/ rather than directly at https://arxiv.org/
The front for arXiv at UC Davis seems to be down for some time. (I ...
- 4,578
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votes
2
answers
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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 ...
- 32.2k
20
votes
1
answer
863
views
What is MathOverflow's "agreement" with Stack Exchange?
On June 24, 2013, MathOverflow signed an agreement with Stack Exchange, Inc., to migrate the original site to the newer Stack Exchange 2.0 platform and join the Stack Exchange network.
François G. ...
- 1,317
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votes
3
answers
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Formatting a citation to a MathOverflow answer
What's a good way to format a citation to a MathOverflow post in a paper?
Here is a first draft (with hyperlink, and assuming it's reference number 16, say), but maybe people can think of ...
- 24.1k
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votes
2
answers
882
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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.
user9072
20
votes
2
answers
935
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 ...
- 4,578
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votes
1
answer
677
views
How to respond to premature crossposts from Math.SE?
There seems to be a general feeling (if not policy) to the effect that questions should not be simultaneously posted to MathOverflow and Math StackExchange (Math.SE). (I think there may have been a ...
- 28.4k